A call to the unconverted : to which are added several valuable essays

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King Agrippa. believest thou the prophets? "

ACTS XXVlV.27.

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BAXTER'S CALL.

CALL

TO

THE UNCONVERTED.

TO WHICH ARE ADDED

SEVERAL VALUABLE ESSAYS.

BY RICHARD BAXTER.
v^v OF THE

WITH

jTJNIVEESITYl

A %I |gR 0 D<g£ T 0 _R\ E S,g A Y ,

BOSTON:
CHARLES H. PEIRCE,

3 CORNHILL.

1848.

£3

NOTICE.

The works of the Rev. Richard Baxter are distinguished
for great energy of style, and a fervent zeal for the salva-
tion of sinners. The present work holds a prominent rank
among his publications. A rapid succession of editions has
been published in various countries, and multitudes have
undoubtedly jeen trained for heaven, whose attention was
first awakened to the concerns of the soul by reading his
■ Call to the Unconverted.' With a view to extend the circu-
lation of so useful a work, the present edition has been ste-
reotyped, believing that many benevolent persons will take
pleasure in procuring a neat pocket edition for gratuitous
circulation. Different copies have been carefully compared,
and great pains taken to secure accuracy to this edition ; and,
to render the work more welcome to readers of the present
day, in a few instances the diction has been improved. The
Discourse, entitled ' Now or Never,' which is added to the
work, is greatly abridged, to compress it to a size which
would admit of its insertion ; and the other selections from
Baxter's works, which are here presented, it is believed will
meet a cordial reception. That the work may continue to
exert a powerful influence in favour of vital godliness, is the
earnest wish of

THE PUBLISHERS.

Boston, Jan. 1329. ,^*

1

i

PRESS OF GEORGE C. RAND & CO.

i

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.

Having already introduced to the notice of our
readers one of Richard Baxter's most valuable
Treatises,* in the Essay to which we adverted to
the character and writings of this venerable author,
we count it unnecessary at present to make any allu-
sion to them, but shall confine our remarks to the
subject of the three Treatises which compose the
present volume, namely, "A Call to the Uncon-
verted TO TURN AND LIVE; " " Now OR NEVER; "

and " Fifty Reasons why a sinner ought to
turn to God this day without delay."

These Treatises are characterized by all that so-
lemn earnestness, and urgency of appeal, for which
the writings of this much-admired author are so pe-
culiarly distinguished. He seems to look upon man-
kind solely with the eyes of the Spirit, and exclusive-
ly to recognise them in their spiritual relations, and
in the great and essential elements of their immortal
being. Their future destiny is the all-important
concern which fills and engrosses his mind, and he
regards nothing of any magnitude but what has a
distinct bearing on their spiritual and eternal condi-
tion. His business, therefore, is always wuth the
conscience, to which, in these Treatises, he makes
the most forcible appeals, and which he plies with
all those arguments which are fitted to awaken the
sinner to a deep sense of the necessity and importance

* The Saints* Everlasting Rest, with an Essay by Mr.
Erskine.

of immediate repentance. In his " Call to the Un-
converted," he endeavours to move them by the
most touching of all representations, the tenderness
of a beseeching God waiting to be gracious, and not
willing that any should perish; and while he employs
every form of entreaty, which tenderness and com-
passion can suggest, to allure the sinner to " turn
and live," he does not shrink from forcing on his
convictions those considerations which are fitted to
alarm ;iis fears, the terrors of the Lord, and the
wrath, not merely of an offended Lawgiver, but of a
God of love, whose threatenings he disregards, whose
grace lie despises, and whose mercy he rejects. And
aware of the deceitfulness of sin in hardening the
hear:, and in betraying the sinner into a neglect of
his spiritual interests, he divests him of every refuge,
and strips him of every plea for postponing his pre-
paration for eternity. "He forcibly exposes the delu-
sion of convenient seasons, and the awful infatuation
and hazard of delay; and knowing the magnitude of
the stake at issue, he urges the sinner to immediate
repentance, as if the fearful and almost absolute al-
ternative were " Now or Never." And to secure
the commencement of such an important work
against all the dangers to which procrastination
might expose it, he endeavours to arrest the sinner
in his career of guilt and unconcern, and resolutely
to fix his determination on " turning to God this day
without delay."

There are two very prevalent delusions on this
subject, which we should like to expose; the one re-
gards the nature, and the other t\\c .season of re-
pentance; both of which are pregnant with mischief
to the minds of men. With regard to the first,
much mischief has arisen l'rom mistakes respecting
the meaning of the term rtpfftfaRK. The word
repentance occurs with tWO different meanings in the
New Testament; and it is to be regretted, that two
different words could not have hern devised to ex-
press these. This is chargeable upon the poverty

of our language; for it is to be observed, that in the
original Greek the distinction in the meanings is
pointed out by a distinction in the words. The em-
ployment of one term to denote two different thing:*}
has the effect of confounding and misleading the un-
derstanding; and it is much to be wished, that every
ambiguity of this kind were cleared away from that
most interesting point in the process of a human soul,
at which it turns from sin unto righteousness, and
from the power of Satan unto God.

When, in common language, a man says, c I re-
pent of such an action,' he is understood to say, ' I
am sorry for having done it.' The feeling is fami-
liar to all of us. How often does the man of dissi-
pation prove this sense of the word repentance, when
he awakes in the morning, and, oppressed by the lan-
guor of his exhausted faculties, looks back with
remorse on the follies and profligacies of the night
that is past? How often does the man of unguard-
ed conversation prove it, when he thinks of the
friend whose feelings he has wounded by some hasty
utterance which he cannot recall? Plow often is it
proved by the man of business, when he reflects on
the rash engagement which ties him down to a losing
speculation? All these people would be perfectly
understood when they say, 'We repent of these
doings.' The word repentance so applied is about
equivalent to the word regret. There are several
passages in the New Testament where this is the
undoubted sense of the word repentance. In Matt,
xxvii. 3. the wretched Judas repented himself of his
treachery; and surely, when we think of the awful
denunciation uttered by our Saviour against the man
who should betray him, that it were better for him
if he had not been born, we will never confound the
repentance which Judas experienced with that re-
pentance which is unto salvation.

Now here lies the danger to practical Christiani-
ty. In the above-cited passage, to repent is just to
• egret, or to be sorry for; and this we conceive to

be by far the most prevailing sense of the term in
the English language. But there are other places
where the same term is employed to denote that which
is urged upon us as a duty — that which is preach-
ed for the remission of sins — that which is so indis-
pensable to sinners, as to call forth the declaration
from our Saviour, that unless we have it, we shall
all likewise perish. Now, though repentance, in all
these cases, is expressed by the same term in our
translation as the repentance of mere regret, it is ex-
pressed by a different term in the original record of
our faith. This surely might lead us to suspect a
difference of meaning, and should caution us against
taking up with that, as sufficient for the business of
our salvation, which is short of saving and scriptural
repentance. There may be an alternation of wilful
sin, and of deeply-felt sorrow, up to the very end of
our history — there may be a presumptuous sin com-
mitted every day, and a sorrow regularly succeeding
it. Sorrow may imbitter every act of sin — sorrow
may darken every interval of sinful indulgence — and
sorrow may give an unutterable anguish to the
pains and the prospects of a deathbed. Couple all
this with the circumstance that sorrow passes, in the
common currency of our language, for repentance,
and that repentance is made, by our Bible, to lie at
the turning point from a state of condemnation to n
state of acceptance with God; and it is difficult Dot
to conceive that much danger may have arisen from
this, leading to indistinct views of the nature oi' re-
pentance, and to slender and superficial conceptions
of the mighty change which is implied in It

We are far from saying that Ihe eve of Chris-
tians is not open to this danger — and that the vigi-
lant care of Christian authors has not been employed
in averting it. Where will weget abetter delini-
tion of repentance unto life than in onr Shorter
Catechism: by which the sinner is represented not
merely a,s grieving, but, along with his grief and
hatred of sin, as turning from it unto God with full

purpose of, and endeavour after new obedience.
But the mischief is, that the word repent has a com-
mon meaning, different from the theological; that
wherever it is used, this common meaning is apt to
intrude itself, and exert a kind of habitual imposi-
tion upon the understanding — that the influence of
the single word carries it over the influence of the
lengthened explanation — and thus it is that, for a
steady progress in the obedience of the gospel, many
persevere, to the end of their days, in a wretched
course of sinning and of sorrowing, without fruit
and without amendment.

To save the practically mischievous effect arising
from the application of one term to two different
things, one distinct and appropriate term has been
suggested lor the saving repentance of the New
Testament. The term repentance itself has been
restricted to the repentance of mere sorrow, and is
made equivalent to regret; and for the other, able
translators have adopted the word reformation. The
one is expressive of sorrow for our past conduct;
the other is expressive of our renouncing it. It de-
notes an actual turning from the habits of life that
we are sorry for. Give us, say they, a change from
bad deeds to good deeds, from bad habits to good
habits, from a life of wickedness to a life of confor-
mity to the requirements of heaven, and you give
us reformation.

Now there is often nothing more unprofitable
than a dispute about . words; but if a word has got
into common use, a common and generally under-
stood meaning is attached to it; and if this mean-
ing does not just come up to the thing which Ave
want to express by it, the application of that word
to that thing has the same misleading effects as in
the case already alluded to. Now, we have much
the same kind of exception to allege against the term
reformation, that we have alleged against the term
repentance. The term repentance is inadequate —
and why? because, in the common use of it, it is

equivalent to regret, and regret is short of the saving
change that is spoken of in the New Testament.
On the very same principle, we count the term re-
formation to be inadequate. We think that, in com-
mon language, a man would receive the appellation
of a reformed man upon the mere change of his out-
ward habits, without any reference to the change of
mind and of principle which gave rise to it. Let the
drunkard give up his excesses — let the backbiter
give up his evil speakings — let the extortioner give
up his unfair charges — and we would apply to one
and all of them, upon the mere change of their ex-
ternal doings, the character of reformed men. Now,
it is evident that the drunkard may give up his
drunkenness, because checked by a serious impres-
sion of the injury he has been doing to his health
and his circumstances. The backbiter may give
up his evil speaking, on being made to perceive that
the hateful practice has brought upon him the con-
tempt and alienation of his neighbours. The ex-
tortioner may give up his unfair charges, upon tak-
ing it into calculation that his business is likely to
suffer by the desertion of his customers. Now, it is
evident, that though in each of these cases there has
been wh^t the world would call reformation, there
has not been scriptural repentance. The deficiency
of this term consists in its having been employed to
denote a mere change in the deeds or in the habits
of the outward man; and if employed as equivalent
to repentance, it may delude us into the idea that
the change by which we are made meet for a happy
eternity is a far more slender and superficial thing
than it really is. It is of little importance to be told
that the translator means it only in the sense 01 a
reformed conduct, proceeding from the inrluenceof
a new and a right principle within. The common
meaning of the word will, as in the former instance,
be ever and anon intruding itself, and get the better
of all the formal cautions, and all the qualifying
clauses of our Bible commentators.

^ or the T ;

[UtflVIT-SITT

But, will not the original itarcjr^tsejf throw some
light upon this important quesrl^n>«trjie repentance
which is enjoined as a duty — the repentance -which
is unto salvation — the repentance which sinners un-
dergo when they pass to a state of acceptance with
God from a state of enmity against him — these are
all one and the same thing, and are expressed by one
and the same word in the original language of the
New Testament. It is different from the word
which expresses the repentance of sorrow; and if
translated according to the parts of which it is com-
posed, it signifies neither more nor less than a
change of mind. This of itself is sufficient to prove
the inadequacy of the term reformation — a term
which is often applied, to a man upon the mere
change of his conduct, without ever adverting to the
state of his mind, or to the kind of change in motive
and in principle which it has undergone. It is true,
that there can be no change in the conduct without
some change in the inward principle. A reformed
drunkard, before careless about health or fortune,
may be so far changed as to become impressed with
these considerations; but this change is evidently
short of that which the Bible calls repentance to-
ward God. It is a change that may, and has taken
place in many a mind, when there was no effectual
sense of the God who is above us, and of the eter-
nity which is before us. It is a change, brought
about by the prospect and the calculation of worldly
advantages; and, in the enjoyment of these advan-
tages, it hath its sole reward. But it is not done
unto God, and God will not accept of it as done unto
him. Reformation mav signify nothing more than
the mere suriace-dressi ng of those decencies, and
proprieties, and accomplishments, and civil and pru-
dential duties, which, however fitted to secure a
man's acceptance in society, may, one and all of
them, consist with a heart alienated from God, and
having every principle and affection of the inner
man away from him. True it is, such a change

as the man will reap benefit from, as his friends will
rejoice in, as the world will call reformation; but it
is not such a change as will make him meet for
heaven, and is deficient in its import from what our
Saviour speaks of when he says, " I tell you nay,
except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish."

There is no single word in the English language
which occurs to us as fully equal to the faithful ren-
dering of the term in the original. Renewedness of
mind, however awkward a phrase this may be, is
perhaps the most nearly expressive of it. Certain
it is, that it harmonizes with those other passages
of the Bible where the process is described by which
saving repentance is brought about. We read of
being transformed by the renewing of our minds, of
the renewing of the Holy Ghost, of being renewed
in the spirit of our minds. Scriptural repentance,
therefore, is that deep and radical change whereby
a soul turns from the idols of sin and of self unto
God, and devotes every movement of the inner and.
the outer man, to the captivity of his obedience.
This is the change which, whether it be expressed
by one word or not in the English language, we
would have you well to understand; and reform-
ation or change in the outward conduct, instead
of being saving and scriptural repentance, is what,
in the language of John the Baptist, we would call
a fruit meet lor it. But if mischief is likely to arise,
from the want of an adequate word in our lan-
guage, to that repentance which is unto salvation,
there is one effectual preservative against it — a linn
and consistent exhibition of the whole counsel and
revelation of God. A man who is well read in his
New Testament, and reads it with docility, will
dismiss all his meagre conceptions of repentance,
when he comes to the following statements; — bi Ex-
cept a man be horn again, he cannot see the king-
dom of God." "Except ye he converted, and be-
come as little children, ye shall not enter into the
kingdom of heaven." " If any man have not the

Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." " The carnal
mind is enmity against God; and if ye live after the
flesh, ye shall die: but if ye, through the Spirit, do
mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live." " By
the washing of regeneration ye are saved." " Be
not then conformed to this world, but be ye trans-
formed by the renewing of your minds." Such are
the terms employed to describe the process by which
the soul of man is renewed unto repentance; and,
with your hearts familiarized to the mighty im-
port of these terms, you will carry with you an
effectual guarantee against those false and flimsy im-
pressions, which are so current in the world, about
the preparation of a sinner for eternity.

Another delusion which we shall endeavour to
expose, is a very mischievous application of the par-
able of the labourers in the vineyard, contained in
the twentieth chapter of the Gospel by Matthew.
The interpretation of this parable, the mischief and
delusion of which we shall endeavour to lay open, is,
that it relates to the call of individuals, and to the
different periods in the age of each individual at
which this call is accepted by them. We almost
know nothing more familiar to us, both in the works
of authors, and in the conversation of private Chris-
tians, than when the repentance of an aged man is
the topic, it is represented as a case of repentance at
the eleventh hour of the day. We are far from
disputing the possibility of such a repentance, nor
should those who address the message of the gospel
ever be restrained from the utterance of the free call
of the gospel, in the hearing of the oldest and most
inveterate sinner whom they may meet with. But
what we contend for, is, that this is not the drift of
the parable. The parable relates to the call of
nations, and to the different periods in the age of
the world at which this call was addressed to each
of them, and not as we have already observed, tq the
call of individuals, and to the different periods in
the age of each individual, at which this call is ac-

Xll

cepted by them.* It is not true that the labourers
who began to work in the vineyard on the first hour
of the clay, denote those Christians who began to
remember their Creator, and to render the obe-
dience of the faith unto his Gospel with their first
and earliest education. It is not true, that they
who entered into this service on the third hour of
the day, denote those Christians, who after a boy-
hood of thoughtless unconcern about the things of
eternity, are arrested in the season of youth, by a
visitation of seriousness, and betake themselves • to
the faith and the following of the Saviour who died
ibr them. It is not true, that they who were hired

* To render our argument more intelligible, we shall
briefly state what we conceive to be the true explanation
of the parable. In the verses preceding the parable, Pe-
ter had stated the whole amount of the surrender that
he and his fellow disciples had made by the act of fol-
lowing after Jesus; and it is evident, that they all looked for-
ward to some great and temporal remuneration — some share
in the glories of the Israelitish monarchy — some place of
splendour or distinction under that new government, which
they imagined was to be set up in the world; and they nev-
er conceived any thing else, than that in this altered state
of tilings, the people of their own country were to be raised
to high pre-eminence among the nations which had op-
pressed and degraded them. It was in the face of this ex-
pectation, that our Saviour uttered a sentence, which we
meet oftener than once among his recorded sayings in the
New Testament, " Main that are first shall be last, and
the last shall be first." The Israelites, whom God distin-
guished at an early period of the world, by a revelation of
himself, were first invited in the doing «>f his will (which is

fitly enough represented by working in his vineyard) to the

possession of his favour, and the enjoyment of his rewards.

This offer to work in that peculiar vineyard, where God as-
signed to them a performance, and bestowed on them a re-
compense, was made to Abraham and to his descendants at
a very early period in history, and a succession ofprophetl
and righteous mm were sent to renew the otter, and the
communications from God to the world, followed the Btream
of ages, down to the time of the utterance of this parable.
And a few years afterwards, the same offers, and ihe same

on the sixth and ninth hours, denote those Chris-
tians, who, after having spent the prime of their
youthful vigour in alienation from God, and perhaps
run out some mad career of guilt and profligacy, put
on their Christianity along with the decencies of
their soher and established manhood. Neither is it
true, that the labourers of the eleventh hour, the
men who had stood all day idle, represent those
aged converts who have put off their repentance to
the last — those men who have renounced the world
when they could not help it — those men who have
put on Christianity, but not till they had put on
their wrinkles — those men who have run the varied
stages of depravity, from the frivolous unconcern of

invitations, were addressed to another people; and at this
late period, at this eleventh hour, the men of those countries
which had never before been visited by any authoritative call
from heaven, had this call lifted up in their hearing, and
many Gentiles accepted that everlasting life, of which the
Jews counted themselves unworthy. And as to the people
of Israel, who valued themselves so much on their privi-
leges— who had turned all the revelations, by which their
ancestors had been honoured, into a matter of distinction
and of vain security — who had ever been in the habit of
eyeing the profane Gentiles with all that contempt which is
laid upon outcasts, this parable received its fulfilment at the
time when these Gentiles, by their acceptance of the Sa-
viour, were exalted to an equal place among the chiefest
favourites of God; and these Jews, by their refusal of him,
had their name rooted out from among the nations — and
those first and foremost in all the privileges of religion, are
now become the last. Now this we conceive to be the real
design of the parable. It was designed to reconcile the
minds of the disciples to that part of the economy of God,
which was most offensive to their hopes and to their pre-
judices. It asserted the sovereignty of the Supreme Being
in the work of dispensing his calls and his favours among
the people whom he had formed. It furnished a most de-
cisive and silencing reproof to the Jews, who were filled
with envy against the Gentiles; and who, even those of them
that embraced the Christian profession, made an obstinate
struggle against the admission of those Gentiles into the
church on equal terms with themselves.

XIV

a boy, and the appalling enormities of misled and
misguided youth, and the deep and determined world-
liness of middle age, and the clinging avarice of him,
who, while with slow and tottering footsteps he de-
scends the hill of life, has a heart more obstinately
set than ever on all its interests, and all its sordid
accumulations, but who, when death taps at the door,
awakens from his dream, and thinks it now time to
shake away his idolatrous affections from the mam-
mon of unrighteousness.

Such are the men who, after having taken their
full swing of all that the world could offer, and of
all that they could enjoy of it, defer the whole work
of preparation for eternity to old age, and fbr the
hire of the labourers of the eleventh hour, do all
that they can in the way of sighs, and sorrows, and
expiations of penitential acknowledgement. What!
will we offer to liken such men to those who sought
the Lord early, and who found him ? Will we say
that he who repents when old, is at all to be com-
pared to him, who bore the whole heat and burden
of a life devoted throughout all its stages to the
glory and the remembrance of the Creator? Who,
from a child, trembled at the word of the Lord, and
aspired after a conformity to all his ways? Who,
when a young man, fulfilled that most appropriate
injunction of the apostle, " Be thou strong?" Who
fought it with manly determination against all the
enemies of principle by which he was surrounded,
and spurned the enticements of vicious acquaintances
away from him; and nobly stood it out, even though
unsupported and alone, against the unhallowed con-
tempt of a whole multitude of ecorners; and with
intrepid defiance to all the assaults of ridicule, main-
tained a firmness, which no wile could seduce from
the posts of vigilance; and cleared his unfaltering
way through all the allurements of a perverse and
crooked generation. Who, even in the midst of a
most withering atmosphere on every side of him,
kept all his purposes unbroken, and all his delicacies

untainted. Who, with the rigour of self-command,
combined the softening lustre which a pure and
amiable modesty sheds over the moral complexion
of him who abhors that which is evil, and cleaves to
that which is good, with all the energy of a holy de-
termination. Can that be a true interpretation,
which levels this youth of promise and of accom-
plishment, with his equal in years, who is now prose-
cuting every guilty indulgence, and crowns the au-
dacity of his rebellion by the mad presumption, that
ere he dies, he shall be able to propitiate that God,
on the authority of all whose calls, and all whose
remonstrances he is now trampling? Or follow each
of them to the evening of their earthly pilgrimage —
will you say that the penitent of the eleventh hour,
is at all to be likened to him who has given the whole
of his existence to the work and the labour of Chris-
tianity? to him who, after a morning of life adorned
with all the gracefulness we have attempted to de-
scribe, sustains through the whole of his subsequent
history such a high and ever brightening example,
that his path is like the shining light, which shineth
more and more unto the perfect day; and every year
he lives, the graces of an advancing sanctification
form into a richer assemblage of all that is pure, and
lovely, and honourable, and of good report; and
when old age comes, it brings none of the turbulence
or alarm of an unfinished preparation along with
it — but he meets death with the quiet assurance of
a man who is in readiness, and hails his message as
a friendly intimation; and as he lived in the splen-
dour of ever-increasing acquirements, so he dies in
all the radiance of anticipated glory.

This interpretation of the parable cannot be sus-
tained ; and we think, that, out of its own mouth,
a condemnation may be stamped upon it. Mark
this peculiarity. The labourers of the eleventh
hour are not men who got the offer before, but men
who for the first time received a call to work in the
vineyard; and they may therefore well represent the

people of a country, who, for the first time, received
the overtures of the Gospel. The answer they
gave to the question, Why stand you so long idle?
was, that no man had hired I hem. We do not read
of any of the labourers of the third, or sixth, or
ninth hours, refusing the call at these times, and
afterwards rendering a compliance with the evening
call, and getting the penny for which they declined
the offer of working several hours, but afterwards
agreed, when the proposal was made, that they
should work one hour only. They had a very good
answer to give, in excuse for their idleness. They
never had been called before. And the oldest men
of a Pagan country have the very same answer to
give, on the first arrival of Christian missionaries
amongst them. But we have no part nor lot in this
parable. We have it not in our power to offer any
such apology. There is not one of us who can ex-
cuse the impenitency of the past, on the plea that no
man had called us. This is a call that has been
sounded in our ears, from our very infancy. Every
time we have seen a bible in our shelves, we have
had a call. Every time we have heard a minister
in the pulpit, we have had a call. Every time we
have heard the generous invitation, " Ho, every one
that thirsteth, come ye unto the waters," we have
had a solemn, and what ought to have been a most
impressive, call. Every time that a parent has
piied us with a good advice, Qr a neighbour come
forward with a friendly persuasion, we have had a
call. Every time that the Sabbath bell has rung
torus to the house of God, we have had a call.
These are all so many distinct and repeated calls.
These are past events in our life, which rise in judg-
ment against us, and remind us, with a justice nf
argument, that there is no evading) that we have no
ri«rht whatever to the privileges of the eleventh
hour.

This, then, is the train to which we feel ourselves
directed by this parable. The mischievous interpre-

tation which has been put upon it, has wakened up
our alarms, and set us to look at the delusion which
it fosters, and, if possible, to drag out to the light of
day, the fallacy which lies in it. We should like to
reduce every man to the feeling of the alternative of
repentance now, or repentance never. We should
like to flash it upon your convictions, that, by put-
ting the call away from you now, you put your eter-
nity away from you. We should like to expose the
whole amount of that accursed infatuation which
lies in delay. We should like to arouse every soul
out of its lethargies, and giving no quarter to the
plea of a little more sleep, and a little more slumber,
we should like you to feel as if the whole of your
future destiny hinged on the very first movement to
which you turned yourselves.

The work of repentance must have a beginning;
and we should like you to know, that, if not begun
to-day, the chance will be less of its being begun
to-morrow. And if the greater chance has failed,
what hope can we build upon the smaller? — and
a chance too that is always getting smaller. Each
day, as it revolves over the sinner's head, finds him a
harder, and a more obstinate, and a more helplessly
enslaved sinner, than before. It was this considera-
tion which gave Richard Baxter such earnestness
and such urgency in his " Call." He knew that the
barrier in the way of the sinner's return, was
strengthened by every act of resistance to the call
which urges it. That the refusal of this moment
hardened the man against the next attack of a Gospel
argument that is brought to bear upon him. That
if he attempted you now, and he failed, when he
came back upon you, he would find himself working
on a more obstinate and uncomplying subject than
ever. And therefore it is, that he ever feels as if the
present were his only opportunity. That he is now
upon his vantage ground, and he gives every energy
of his soul to the great point of making the most of
it. He will put up with none of your evasions. He

will consent to none of your postponements. He
will pay respect to none of your more convenient
seasons. He tells you, that the matter with which
he is charged, has al! the urgency of a matter in hand.
He speaks to you with as much earnestness as if he
knew that you were going to step into eternity in
half an hour. He delivers his message with as much
solemnity as if he knew that this was your last meet-
ing on earth, and that you were never to see each
other till you stood together at the judgment-seat.
He knew that some mighty change must take place
in you, ere you be fit for entering into the presence
of God; and that the time in which, on every plea
of duty and of interest, you should bestir yourselves
to secure this, is the present time. This is the
distinct point he assigns to himself; and the whole
drift of his argument, is to urge an instantaneous
choice of the better part, by telling you how you
multiply every day the obstacles to your future re-
pentance, if you begin not the work of repentance
now.

Before bringing our Essay to a close, we shall
make some observations on the mistakes concerning
repentance which we have endeavoured to expose,
and adduce some arguments for urging on the con-
sciences of our readers the necessity and importance
of immediate repentance.

1. The work of repentance is a work which must
be done ere we die; for, unless we repent, we shall
all likewise perish. Now, the easier this work is
in our conception, we will think it the less necessary
to enter upon it immediately. We will look upon
it as a work that may be done at any time, and let
us, therefore, put it oil" a little longer, and a -little
longer. We will perhaps look forward to taat re-
tirement from the world and its temptations which
we figure old age to bring along with it, and falling
in with the too common idea, that the evening of
life is the appropriate season of preparation for anoth-
er world, we will think that the author is bearing

too closely and too urgently upon us, when, in the
language of the Bible, he speaks of " to-day," while
it is called to-da}^ and will let us off with no other re-
pentance than repentance " now" — seeing that now
only is the accepted time, and now only the day of
salvation, which he has a warrant to proclaim to us.
This dilatory way of it is very much favoured by the
mistaken and very defective view of repentance which
we have attempted to expose. We have some how
or other got into the delusion, that repentance is sor-
row, and little else; and were we called to fix upon
the scene where this sorrow is likely to be felt in the
degree that is deepest and most overwhelming, we
would point to the chamber of the dying man. It
is awful to think that, generally speaking, this re-
pentance of mere sorrow is the only repentance of a
deathbed. Yes ! we will meet with sensibility deep
enough and painful enough there — with regret in all
its bitterness — with terror mustering up its images
of despair, and dwelling upon them in all the gloom
of an affrighted imagination; and this is mistaken, not
merely for the drapery of repentance, but for the
very substance of it. We look forward, and we
count upon this — that the sins of a life are to be ex-
punged by the sighing and the sorrowing of the last
days of it. We should give up this wretchedly
superficial notion of repentance, and cease, from this
moment, to be led astray by it. The mind may sor-
row over its corruptions at the very time that it is
under the power of them. To grieve because we
are under the captivity of sin is one thing — to be re-
leased from that captivity is another. A man may
weep most bitterly over the perversities of his moral
constitution; but to change that constitution is a
different affair. Now, this is the mighty work of
repentance. He who has undergone it is no longer
the servant of sin. He dies unto sin, he lives unto
God. A sense of the authority of God is ever pres-
ent with him, to wield the ascendency of a great
master-principle over all his movements — to call forth

XX

every purpose, and to carry it forward, through all the
opposition of sin and of Satan, into accomplishment.
Tins is the grand revolution in the state of the mind
which repentance brings along with it. To grieve
because this work is not done, is a very different
thing from the doing of it. A deathbed is the very
best scene for acting the first; but it is the very worst
for acting the second. The repentance of Judas has
often been acted there. We ought to think of the
work in all its magnitude, and not to put it off to
that awful period when the soul is crowded with
other things, and has to maintain its weary struggle
with the pains, and the distresses, and the shiver-
ings, and the breathless agonies of a deathbed.

2. There are two views that may be taken of the
way in which repentance is brought about, and which-
ever of them is adopted, delay carries along with it
the saddest infatuation. It may be looked upon as
a step taken by man as a voluntary agent, and we
would ask you, upon your experience of the powers
and the performances of humanity, if a deathbed is
the time for taking such a step ? Is this a time for
a voluntary being exercising a vigorous control over
his own movements? When racked with pain, and
borne down by the pressure of a sore and over-
whelming calamity ? Surely the greater the work of
repentance is, the more ease, the more time, the more
freedom from suffering, is necessary for carrying it on;
and, therefore, addressing you as voluntary beings,
as beings who will and who do, we call upon yon lo
seek God early that you may find him — to haste,
and make no delay in keeping his commandments.
The other view is, that repentance is not a self-
originating work in man, but the work of the Holy
Spirit in him as the subject of its influences. This
uVw is not opposite to the former. It is true that
(linn wills and does at every step in the business of
bis salvation; and it is as true that God works in
him so to will and to do. Take this last view of
it then. Look on repentance as the work of God^a

Spirit in the soul of man, and we are furnished with
a more impressive argument than ever, and set on
higher vantage for urging you to stir yourselves, and
set about it immediately. What is it that you pro-
pose? To keep by your present habits, and your
]) resent indulgences — and build yourselves up all the
while in the confidence that the Spirit will interpose
with his mighty power of conversion upon you, at the
very point of time that you have fixed upon as conve-
nient and agreeable? And how do you conciliate the
Spirit's answer to your call then? Why, by doing ail
you can to grieve, and to quench, and to provoke him
to abandon you now. Do you feel a motion towards
repentance at this moment? If you keep it alive,
and act upon it, good and well. But if you smother
and suppress this motion, you resist the Spirit — you
stillc his movements within you: it is what the im-
penitent do day after day, and year after year — and
is this the way for securing the influences of the Spirit
at the time that you would like them best? When
you are done with the world, and are looking forward
to eternity because you cannot help it? God says,
" My Spirit will not always strive with the children
of men." A good and a free Spirit he undoubtedly
is, and, as a proof of it, he is now saying, " Let
whosoever will, come and drink of the water of life
freely." He says so now, but we do not promise
that he will say so with eflect upon your deathbeds,
if you refuse him now. You look forward then for
a powerful work of conversion being done upon you,
and yet you employ yourselves all your life long in rais-
ing and multiplying obstacles against it. You count
upon a miracle of grace before you die, and the way
you take to make yourselves sure of it, is to grieve and
offend him while you live, who alone can perform the
miracle. O what cruel deceits will sin land us in !
and how artfully it pleads for a " little more sleep,
and a little more slumber; a little more folding of
the hands to sleep." We should hold out no longer,
nor make not such an abuse of the forbearance of

XX11

God: we will treasure up wrath against the day of
wrath if we do so. The genuine effect of his good-
ness is to lead to repentance; let not its effect upon
us be to harden and encourage ourselves in the ways
of sin. We should cry now for the clean heart and
the right spirit; and such is the exceeding freeness
of the Spirit of God, that we will be listened to.
If we put off the cry till then, the same God may
laugh at our calamity, and mock when our fear
cometh.

3. Our next argument for immediate repentance
is, that we cannot bring forward, at any future period
of your history, any considerations of a more pre-
vailing or more powerfully moving influence than
those we may bring forward at this moment. We
can tell you now of the terrors of the Lord. We can
tell you now of the solemn mandates which have is-
sued from his throne — and the authority of which is
upon one and all of you. We can tell you now, that
though, in this dead and. darkened world, sin appears
but a very trivial affair — for every body sins, and it
is shielded from execration by the universal counte-
nance of an entire species lying in wickedness — yet it
holds true of God, what is so emphatically said of
him, that he cannot be mocked, nor will he endure it
that you should riot in the impunity of your wilful
resistance to him and to his warnings. We can tell
you now, that he is a God of vengeance; and though,
ibr a season, he is keeping back all the thunders of it
from a world that he would like to reclaim unto him-
self, yet, if you put all his expostulations away from
vou, and will not be reclaimed, these thunders will be
'lei loose upon you, and they will fall on your guilty
beads, armed with tenfold energy, because you have
not only defied his threats, 'but turned your back on
his oilers of reconciliation. These are the arguments
by which we would try to Open our way to your
consciences, and to waken up your tears, and to put
the inspiring activity of hope into your bosoms, by
laying before you those invitations which are address-

ed to the sinner, through the peace-speaking blood of
Jesus, and, in the name of a beseeching God, to win
your acceptance of them. At no future period can
we address arguments more powerful and more affec-
ting than these. If these arguments do not prevail
upon you, we know of none others by which a victo-
ry over the stubborn and uncomplying will can be
accomplished, or by which we can ever hope to beat
in that sullen front of resistance wherewith you now
so impregnably withstand us. We feel that, if any
stout-hearted sinner shall rise from the perusal of
these Treatises with an unawakened conscience, and
give himself to an act of wilful disobedience, we feel
as if, in reference to him, we had made our last dis-
charge, and it fell powerless as water spilt on the
ground, that cannot be gathered up again. We
would not cease to ply him with our arguments, and
tell him, to the hour of death, of the Lord God, mer-
ciful and gracious, who is not willing that any should
perish, but that all should turn to him, and live. And
if in future life we should meet him at the eleventh
hour of his dark and deceitful day — a hoary sinner,
sinking under the decrepitude of age, and bending on
the side of the grave that is open to receive him —
even then we. would testify the exceeding freeness of
the grace of God, and implore his acceptance of it.
But how could it be away from our minds that he is
not one of the evening labourers of the parable?
We had met with him at former periods of his exist-
ence, and the offer we make him now we made him
then, and he did what the labourers of the third, and
sixth, and ninth hours of the parable did not do — he
rejected our call to hire him into the vineyard; and
this heartless recollection, if it did not take all our
energy away from us, would leave us little else than
the energy of despair. And therefore it is, that we
speak to you now as if this was our last hold of you.
We feel as if on your present purpose hung all the
preparations of your future life, and all the rewards
or all the horrors of your coming eternity. We will

not let you off with any other repentance than re-
pentance now; and if this be refused now, we cannot,
with our eyes open to the consideration we have now
urged, that the instrument we make to hear upon
you afterwards is not more powerful than we are
wielding now, coupled with another consideration
which we shall insist upon, that the subject on which
the instrument worketh, even the heart of man, gath-
ers, by every act of resistance, a more uncomplying
obstinacy than before; we cannot, with these two
thoughts in our mind, look forward to your future
history, without seeing spread over the whole path
of it the iron of a harder impenitency — the sullen
gloom of a deeper and more determined alienation.

4. Another argument, therefore, for immediate
repentance is, that the mind which resists a present
call or a present reproof, undergoes a progressive
hardening towards all those considerations which
arm the call of repentance with all its energy.
It is not enough to say, that the instrument by
which repentance is brought about, is not more
powerful to-morrow than it is to day; it lends a
most tremendous weight to the argument, to say
further, that the subject on which this instrument
is putting forth its efficiency, will oppose a firmer re-
sistance to-morrow than it does to-day. It is this
which gives a significancy so powerful to the call of
" To-day while it is to-day, harden not your hearts;"
and to the admonition of " Knowest thou not, O
man, that the goodness of God leadeth thee to re-
pentance; but after, thy hardness and impenitent
heart treasurest up wrath against the day of wrath
and revelation of the righteous judgments of God? "
It is not said, either in the one or in the other of
these passages, that, by the present refusal, you cut
yourself off from a future invitation. The invita-
tion may be sounded in your hearing to the last half
hour of your earthly existence, engraved in all those
characters of freehand gratuitous kindness which
mark the beneficent religion of the New Testament.

But the present refusal hardens you against the
power and tenderness of the future invitation. This
is the fact in human nature to which these passages
seem to point, and it is the fact through which the
argument for immediate repentance receives such
powerful aid from the wisdom of experience. It
is this which forms the most impressive proof of
the necessity of plying the young with all the weight
and all the tenderness of earnest admonition, that
the now susceptible mind might not turn into a sub-
stance harder and more uncomplying than the rock
which is broken in pieces by the powerful applica-
tion of the hammer of the word of God.

The metal of the human soul, so to speak, is like
some material substances. If the force you lay
upon it do not break it, or dissolve it, it will beat it
into hardness. If the moral argument by which it
is plied now, do not so soften the mind as to carry
and to overpower its purposes, then, on another day,
the argument may be put forth in terms as impres-
sive— but it falls on a harder mind, and, therefore,
with a more slender efficiency. If the threat, that
ye who persist in sin shall have to dwell with the de-
vouring fire, and to lie down amid everlasting burn-
ings, do not alarm you out of your iniquities from
this very moment, then the same threat may be
again cast out, and the same appalling circumstances
of terror be thrown around it, but it is all discharged
on a soul hardened by its inurement to the thunder
of denunciations already uttered, and the urgency of
menacing threatenings already poured forth without
fruit and without efficacy. If the voice of a be-
seeching God do not win upon you now, and charm
you out of your rebellion against him, by the per-
suasive energy of kindness, then let that voice be
lifted in your hearing on some future day, and
though armed with all the power of tenderness it
ever had, how shall it find its entrance into a heart
sheathed by the operation of habit, that universal
law, in more impenetrable obstinacy? l^ with the
3

XXVI

earliest dawn of your understanding, you have been
offered the hire of the morning labourer and have
refused it, then the parable does not say that you
are the person who at the third, or sixth, or ninth,
or eleventh hour, will get the offer repeated to you.
It is true, that the offer is unto all and upon ail who
are within reach of the hearing of it. But there is
all the difference in the world between the impression
of a new offer, and of an offer that has already been
often heard and as often rejected — an offer which
comes upon you with all the familiarity of a well-
known sound that you have already learned how to
dispose of, and how to shut your every feeling
against the power of its gracious invitations — an
offer which, if discarded from your hearts at the
present moment, may come back upon you, but
which will have to maintain a more unequal con-
test than before, with an impenitency ever strength-
ening, and ever gathering new hardness from each
successive act of resistance. And thus it is that the
point for which we are contending is not to carry
you at some future period of your lives, but to carry
you at this moment. It is to work in you the instan-
taneous purpose of a firm and a vigorously sustained
repentance; it is to put into you all the freshness <»f
an immediate resolution, and to stir you up to all
the readiness of an immediate accomplishment — it is
to give direction to the very first footstep you are now
to take, and lead you to take it as the commencement
of that holy career, in which all old things are done
away, and all things become new — it is to press it
upon you, that the state of the alternative, at this
moment, is " now or never" — it is to prove how fear-
ful the odds are against you, if now you sutler the call
of repentance to light upon your consciences, and still
keep by your determined posture of careless, and
thoughtless, and thankless unconcern about God.
You have resisted to-day. and by that resistance you
have acquired a firmer metal of resistance against
the power of every future warning that may be

brought to bear upon you. You have stood your
ground against the urgency of the most earnest ad-
monitions, and against the dreadfulness of the most
terrifying menaces. On that ground you have fixed
yourself more immovably than before; and though
on some future day the same spiritual thunder be
made to play around you, it will not shake you out
of the obstinacy of your determined rebellion.

It is the universal law of habit, that the feelings
are always getting more faintly and feebly impressed
by every repetition of the cause which excited them,
and that the mind is always getting stronger in its
active resistance to the impulse of these feelings, by
every new deed of resistance which it performs; and
thus it is, that if you refuse us now, we have no oth-
er prospect before us than that your cause is every
day getting more desperate and more irrecoverable,
your souls are getting more hardened, the Spirit is
getting more provoked to abandon those who have so
long persisted in their opposition to his movements.
God, who says that his Spirit will not always strive
with the children of men, is getting more offended.
The tyranny of habit is getting every day a firmer
ascendency over you; Satan is getting you more help
lessly involved among his wiles and his entanglements;
the world, with all the inveteracy of those desii^s
which are opposite to the will of the Father, is more
and more lording it over your every affection. And
what, we would ask, what is the scene in which you
are now purposing to contest it, with all this mighty
force of opposition you are now so busy in raising up
against you? What is the field of combat to which
you are now looking forward, as the place where you
are to accomplish a victory over all those formidable
enemies whom you are at present arming with such
a weight of hostility, as, we say, within a single hair-
breadth of certainty, you will find to be irresistible?
0 the bigness of such a misleading infatuation! The
proposed scene in which this battle for eternity is to
be fought, and this victory for the crown of glory is to

1

be won, is a deathbed. It is when the last messenger
stands by the couch of the dying man, and shakes at
him the terrors of his grisly countenance, that the
poor child of infatuation thinks he is to struggle and
prevail against all his enemies; against the unrelenting
tyranny of habit — against the obstinacy of his own
heart, which he is now doing so much to harden —
against the Spirit of God who perhaps long ere now
has pronounced the doom upon him, "He will take his
own way, and walk in his own counsel; I shall cease
from striving, and let him alone" — against Satan, to
whom every day of his life he has given some fresh
advantage over him, and who will not be willing to
lose the victim on whom he has practised so many
wiles, and plied with success so many delusions.
And such are the enemies whom you, who wretch-
edly calculate on the repentance of the eleventh
hour, are every day mustering up in greater force and
formidableness against you; and how can we think
of letting you go, with any other repentance than
the repentance of the precious moment that is now
passing over you, when we look forward to the hor-
rors of that impressive scene, on which you propose
to win the prize of immortality, and to contest it sin-
glehanded and alone, with all the weight of opp< isition
which you have accumulated against yourselves — a
deathbed — a languid, breathless, tossing, and agita-
ted deathbed; that scene of feebleness, when the
poor man cannot help himself to a single mouthful —
when ho must have attendants to sit around him,
and watch his every wish, and interpret his every sig-
nal, and turn him to every posture where he may
find a moments ease, and wipe away the cold sweat
that is running over him — and ply him with cordials
for thirst, and sickness, and insufferable languor.
And this is the time, when occupied with such feel-
ings, and heset with such agonies as these, you pro*
pOtte to crowd within the compass ofa lew wretched
days, the work of winding up the concerns of a neg-
lected eternity !

5. But it may be said, if repentance be what you
represent it, a thing of such mighty import, and such
impracticable performance, as a change of mind, in
what rational way can it be made the subject of a
precept or an injunction? you would not call upon
the Ethiopian to change his skin — you would not call
upon the leopard to change his spots; and yet you call
upon us to change our minds. You say, " Repent;"
and that too in the face of the undeniable doctrine,
that man is without strength for the achievement of
so mighty an enterprise. Can you tell us any plain
and practicable thing that you would have us to per-
form, and that we may perform to help on this busi-
ness? This is the very question with which the
hearers of John the Baptist came back upon him,
after he had told them in general terms to repent,
and to bring forth fruits meet for repentance. He
may not have resolved the difficulty, but he pointed
the expectations of his countrymen to a greater than
he for the solution of it. Now that Teacher has al-
ready come, and we live under the full and the finish-
ed splendour of his revelation. O that the greatness
and difficulty of the work of repentance, had the ef-
fect of shutting you up into the faith of Christ!
Repentance is not a paltry, superficial reformation.
It reaches deep into the inner man, but not too deep
for the searching influences of that Spirit which is at
his giving, and which worketh mightily in the hearts
of believers. You should go then under a sense of
your difficulty to Him. Seek to be rooted in the Sa-
viour, that you may be nourished out of his fulness,
and strengthened by his migjit. The simple cry for
a clean heart, and a right spirit, which is raised from
the mouth of a believer, brings down an answer from
on high, which explains all the difficulty and over-
comes it. And if what we have said, of the extent
and magnitude of repentance, should have the effect
to give a deeper feeling than before of the wants un-
der which you labour; and shall dispose you to seek
after a closer and more habitual union with Him

1

who alone can supply them, then will our call to re-
pent have indeed fulfilled upon you the appointed end
of a preparation for the Saviour. But recollect now
is your time, and now is your opportunity, for enter-
ing on the road of preparation that leads to heaven.
We charge you to enter this road at this moment,
as you value your deliverance from hell, and your
possession of that "blissful place where you shall be
for ever with the Lord — we charge you not to parry
and to delay this matter, no not for a single hour —
we call on you by all that is great in eternity — by all
that is terrifying in its horrors — by all that is allur-
ing in its rewards — by all that is binding in the au-
thority of God — by all that is condemning in the se-
verity of his violated law, and by all that can aggra-
vate this condemnation in the insulting contempt of
his rejected gospel; — we call on you by one and all
of these considerations, not to hesitate but to flee —
not to purpose a return for to-morrow, but to make
an actual return this very day — to put a decisive end
to every plan of wickedness on which you may have
entered — to cease your hands from all that is forbid-
den— to turn them to all that is required — to betake
yourselves to the appointed Mediator, and receive
through him, by the prayer of faith, such constant
supplies of the washing of regeneration and renewing
of the Holy Ghost, that, from this moment, you
maybe carried forward from one degree of grace un-
to another, and from a life devoted to God here, to
the elevation of a triumphant, and the joys of a bliss-
ful eternity hereafter.

T. 6.

St. Andrew's, October, 1S25.

CONTENTS.

The Advertisement, - - - 33

The Preface, - 35

The Text opened, - - - 49

Doct. 1. It is the unchangeable law of God, that
wicked men must turn or die — Proved, 52

God will not be so unmerciful as to damn us —
Answered, - 53

The Use, 57

Who are wicked men, and what conversion is; and
how we may know whether we are wicked or
converted, - 59

Applied, ----- 63

Doct. 2. It is the promise of God, that the wicked
shall live, if they will but turn; unfeignedly and
thoroughly turn — Proved, - 76

Doct. 3. God taketh pleasure in men's conversion
and salvation, but not in their death or damna-
tion. He had rather they would turn and live,
than go on and die — Expounded — Proved, 82

Doct. 4. The Lord hath confirmed it to us by
his oath, That he hath no pleasure in the death
of the wicked, but that he turn and live; that he
may leave man no pretence to doubt of it, 89

Use. Who is it then that takes pleasure in men's
sin and death? — Not God, nor ministers, nor any
good men, * - - - - 90

Doct. 5. So earnest is God for the conversion of
sinners, that he doubleth his commands and ex-
hortations with vehemency, " Turn ye, Turn
ye," — Applied, - - - 96

Some motives to obey God's call, and turn.
Doct. 6. The Lord condescendeth to reason the
case with unconverted sinners, and to ask them,
Why they will die? - 109

S2 CONTENTS.

A strange disputation: — 1. For the question.
2. The disputants.
Wicked men will die, or destroy themselves.
Use. The sinner's case is certainly unreasonable, 113
Their seeming reasons confuted, - - 116

Quest. Why are men so unreasonable, and loath

to turn, and will destroy themselves? — Answered, 128
Doct. 7. If after all this, men will not turn, it is not
God's fault that they are condemned, but their
own, even their own wilfulness. They die be-
cause they will; that is, because they will not
turn, _---- 131

Use, 1. How unfit the wicked are to charge God
with their damnation. It is not because God is
unmerciful, but because they are cruel and mer-
ciless to themselves, - - - 138
Object. We cannot convert ourselves, nor have

we Free-will — Answered, (and in Preface) 142

Use, 2. The subtlety of Satan, the deceitfulness of

sin, and the folly of sinners manifested, - 143
Use, 3. No wonder if the wicked would hinder the

conversion and salvation of others, - 144

Use, 4. Man is the greatest enemy to himself, 144

Man's destruction is of himself — Proved, - 145

The heinous aggravations of self-destroying, 151

The concluding exhortation, - - 152

Ten Directions for those that had rather turn than

die, 156

Now or Never, - 165

Fifty Reasons, - 203

Extractsfrom Baxter's Dying Thoughts, 231

%^,

Uflff/f

OF THB

fuHivsasi

THE GREAT SUCCESS

WHICH ATTENDED THE CALL

WHEN FIRST PUBLISHED.

It may be proper to prefix an account of this book
given by Mr. Baxter himself, which was found in his
study, after his death, in his own words:

* I published a short treatise on conversion, entitled,
A Call to the Unconverted. The occasion of this was
my converse with Bishop Usher while I was at London ;
who, approving my method and directions for Peace of
Conscience, was importunate with me to write directions
suited to the various states of Christians, and also against
particular sins. I reverenced the man, but disregarded
these persuasions, supposing I could do nothing but what
is done better already: but when he was dead, his words
went deeper to my mind, and I purposed to obey his
counsel; yet, so as that to the first sort of men, the un-
godly, I thought vehement persuasions meeter than di-
rections only: and so for such I published this little book,
which God hath blessed with unexpected success, be-
yond all the rest that I have written, except The Saint's
Rest. In a little more than a year, there were about
twenty thousand of them printed by my own consent, and
about ten thousand since, beside many thousands by
stolen impressions, which poor men stole for lucre's sake.
Through God's mercy, I have information of almost
whole households converted by this small book which I
set so light by: and, as if all this in England, Scotland,

34 ADVERTISEMENT.

and Ireland, were not mercy enough to me, God, since
I was silenced, hath sent it over in his message to many
beyond the seas; for when Mr. Elliot had printed all the
Bible in the Indian language, he next translated this my
Call to the Unconverted, as he wrote to us here. And
yet God would make some farther use of it; for Mr.
Stoop, the pastor of the French Church in London, be-
ing driven hence by the displeasure of his superiors, was
pleased to translate it into French. I hope it will not
be unprofitable there; nor in Germany, where it is print-
ed in Dutch.'

It may be proper also to mention Dr. Bates's account
of the author, and of this useful treatise. In his sermon
at Mr. Baxter's funeral, he thus says : • His books of
practical divinity have been effectual for more conver-
sions of sinners to God than any printed in our time; and
while the church remains on earth, will be of continual
efficacy to recover lost souls. There is a vigorous pulse
in them, that keeps the reader awake and attentive.'
His Call to the Unconverted, how small in bulk, but
how powerful in virtue! Truth speaks in it with that
authority and efficacy, that it makes the reader to lay
his hand upon his heart, and find that he has a soul and
a conscience, though he lived before as if he had none.
He told some friends, that six brothers were converted by
reading that Call; and that every week he received
letters of some converted by his books. This he spake
with most humble thankfulness, that God was pleased to
use him as an instrument for the salvation of souls.

PREFACE.

To all unsanctified Persons that shall read this Book;
especially of my hearers in the Borough and Parish
of Kidderminster.

MEN AND BRETHREN,

The eternal God, that made you for a life everlasting,
and hath redeemed you by his only Son, when you had lost
it and yourselves, being mindful of you in your sin and mis-
ery, hath indited the gospel, and sealed it by his Spirit, and
commanded his ministers to preach it to the world, that par-
don being freely offered you, and Heaven being set before
you, he might call you off from your fleshly pleasures, and
from following after this deceitful world, and acquaint you
with the life that you were created and redeemed for, before
you are dead and past remedy. He sendeth you not prophets
or apostles, that receive their message by immediate revela-
tion; but yet he calleth you by his ordinary ministers, who
are commissioned by him to preach the same gospel which
Christ and his apostles first delivered. The Lord seeth how
you forget him and your latter end, and how light you make
of everlasting things, as men that understand not what they
have to do or suffer. He seeth how bold you are in sin,
and how fearless of his threatenings, and how careless of
your souls, and how the works of infidels are in your lives,
while the belief of Christians is in your mouths. He seeth
the dreadful day at hand, when your sorrows will begin, and
you must lament all this with fruitless cries in torment and
desperation: and then the remembrance of your folly will
tear your hearts, if true conversion now prevent it not. In
compassion to your sinful miserable souls, the Lord, that
better knows your case than you can know it, hath made it
our duty to speak to you in his name, (2 Cor. v. 19.) and to
tell you plainly of your sin and misery, and what will be your
end, and how sad" a change you will shortly see, if yet you
go on a little longer. Having bought you at so dear a rate
as the blood of his Son Jesus Christ, and made you so free

36 PREFACE.

and general a promise of pardon, and grace, and everlasting
glory; he commandeth us to tender all this to you, as the gift
of God, and to entreat you to consider of the necessity and
worth of what he offers. He sees and pities you, while you
are drowned in worldly cares and pleasures, eagerly fol-
lowing childish toys, and wasting- that short and precious
time for a thing of nought, in which you should make ready
for an everlasting life; and therefore he hath commanded
us to call after you, and tell you how you lose your labour,
and are about to lose your souls, and to tell you what great-
er and better things you might certainly have, if you would
hearken to his call. Isa. lv. 1, 2, 3. We believe and obey
the voice of God; and come to you on his message, who hath
charged us to preach, and be instant with you in season and
out of season, to lift up our voice like a trumpet, and
show you your transgressions and your sins. Isa. lviii. 1, 2;
Tim. iv. 1, 2. But, alas! to the grief of our souls and your
undoing, you stop your ears, you stiffen your necks, you
harden your hearts, and send us back to God with groans,
to tell him that we have done his message, but can do no
good on you, nor scarcely get a sober hearing. Oh! that
our eyes were as a fountain of tears, that we might lament
our ignorant careless people, that have Christ before them,
and pardon, and life, and heaven before them, and have not
hearts to know or value them! that might have Christ, and
grace, and glory, as well as others, if it were not for their
wilful negligence and contempt! O that the Lord would fill
our hearts with more compassion to these miserable souls,
that we might cast ourselves even at their feel, and follow
them to their houses, and speak to them with our bitter
tears. For, long have we preached to many of them in vain.
We study plainness to make them understand, and many of
them will not understand us; we study serious piercing words,
to make them feel, but they will not feel. If the greatest
matters would work with them, we should awake them; if
the sweetest things would work, we should entice them and
win their hearts; if the most dreadful things would work, we
should at least affright them from their wickedness; if truth
and certainty would take with them, we should soon convince
them; if the God that made them, and the Christ that bought
them, might be heard, the case would soon be altered with
them; if scripture might be heard, we should soon prevail; if
reason, even the best and strongest reason, might be heard,
we should not doubt but we should speedily convince them;
if experience might be heard, even their own experience and
the experience of all the world, the matter would be mended;
yea, if the conscience within them might be heard, the case

PREFACE. 37

would be better with them than it is. But if nothing can be
heard, what then shall we do for tnem'? If the dreadful God
of heaven be slighted, who then shall be regarded! if the
inestimable love and blood of a Redeemer be made light
of, what then shall be valued'? If heaven have no desirable
glory with them, and everlasting joys be nothing worth; if
they can jest at hell, and dance about the bottomless pit, and
play with the consuming fire, and that when God and man
do warn them of it, what shall we do for such souls as these!
Once more, in the name of the God of heaven, I shall
do the message to you which he hath commanded us, and
leave it in these standing lines to convert you or condemn
you: to change you, or rise up in judgment against you, and to
be a witness to your faces, that once you had a serious call
to turn. Hear all you that are drudges of the world, and
the servants of flesh and Satan! that spend your days in look-
ing after prosperity on earth, and drown your conscience
in drinking, and gluttony, and idleness, and foolish sports,
and know your sin, and yet will sin, as if you set God at defi-
ance, and bid him do his worst and spare not! Hearken, all
you that mind not God, and have no heart to holy things,
and feel no savour in the word or worship of the Lord, or in
the thoughts or mention of eternal life, that are careless of your
immortal souls, and never bestow one hour in inquiring what
case they are in, whether sanctified or unsanctified, and wheth-
er you are ready to appear before the Lord! Hearken all you
that, by sinning in light, have sinned yourselves into infide-
lity, and do not believe the word of God. He that hath an
ear to hear, let him hear the gracious and yet dreadful call of
God! His eye is all this while upon you. Your sins are re-
gistered, and you shall surely hear of them all again. God
keepeth the book now; and he will write it all upon your
consciences with his terrors; and then you also shall keep it
yourselves! O sinners, that you but knew what you are do-
ing, and whom you are all this while offending! The sun it-
*elf is darkness before the glory of that Majesty, which you
daily abuse and carelessly provoke. The sinning angels
were not able to stand before him, but were cast down to be
tormented with devils. And dare such siily worms as you
so carelessly offend, and set yourselves against your Maker!
O that you did but a little know what case that wretched
soul is in, that hath engaged the living God against him! The
word of his mouth, that made thee, can unmake thee; the
frown of his face will cut thee off and cast thee out into ut-
ter darkness. How eager are the devils to be doing with
thee that have tempted thee, and do but wait for the word
from God to take and use thee as their own! and then in a

r

38 PREFACE.

moment thou wilt be in hell. If God be against thee, all
things are against thee: this world is but thy prison, tor all
thou so lovest it; thou art but reserved in it to the day of
wrath (Job xxi. 30.); the Judge is coming, thy soul is even
going. Yet a little while, and thy friend shall say of thee
* He is dead;' and thou shalt see the things that thou now dost
despise, and feel that which now thou wilt not believe. Death
will bring such an argument as thou canst not answer; an
argument that shall effectually confute thy cavils against the
word and ways of God, and all thy self-conceited dotages.
And, then how soon will thy mind be changed? Then be an
unbeliever if thou canst; stand then to all thy former words,
which thou wast wont to utter against a holy and a heavenly
life. Make good that cause then before the Lord, which thou
wast wont to plead against thy teachers, and against the peo-
ple that feared God. Then stand to thy old opinions and eon-
temptuous thoughts of the diligence of the saints: make ready
now thy strongest reasons, and stand up then before the Judge,
and plead like a man for thy fleshly, thy worldly, thy ungodly
life. But know that thou wilt have one to plead with, that will
not be outfaced by thee; nor so easily put off as we thy fellow-
creatures. O poor soul ! there is nothing but a slender veil of
flesh between thee and that amazing sight, which will quickly
silence thee, and turn thy tone, and make thee of another mind!
As soon as death hath drawn this curtain, thou shalt see that
which will quickly leave thee speechless. And how quickly
will that day and hour come! When thou hast had but a few
more merry hours, and but a few more pleasant draughts and
morsels, and a little more of the honours and riches of the
world, thy portion will be spent, and thy pleasures ended, and
all is then gone that thou settest thy heart upon; of all that thou
coldest thy Saviour and salvation for, there is nothing left but
the heavy reckoning. As a thief, that sits merrily spending
the money which he hath stolen, in an alehouse, when mm
are riding in post haste to apprehend him, so is it with you.
While you are drowned in cares or fleshly pleasures, and
making merry with your own shame, death is coming in post
haste to seize upon you, and carry your souls to such a place
and state as now you little know or think of. Suppose, w lun
you are bold and busy in your sin, that a messenger were but
coming post from London to apprehend you and tftfce away
your lives; though you saw him not, yet if you knew thai he
was Doming, it would mar your mirth, and you would he
thinking of the haste he makes, and hearkening when he
knocked at your door. O that you could but see what baste
Death makes, though he vet has not overtaken you! No pott
so swift. No messenger more sure. As sure as the sun will

PREFACE. 39

be with you in the morning, though it hath many thousand
and hundred thousand miles to go in the night, so sure will
Death be quickly with you: and then where is your sport and
pleasure] Then will you jest and brave it out? Then will
you jeer at them that warned you? Then is it better to be a
believing saint or a sensual worldling? And then whose shall
all these thing3 be that you have gathered? Luke xii. 19,
20, 21. Do you not observe that days and weeks are quickly
gone, and nights and mornings come apace, and speedily
succeed each other? You sleep, but your damnation slum-
bereth not; you linger, but your judgment this long time ling-
creth not, to which you are reserved for punishment. 2 Pet.
ii. 3, 4, 5, 8, 9. O that you were wise to understand this,
and that you did consider your latter end! Deut. xxxii. 29.
He that hath an ear to hear, let him hear the call of God in
this day of his salvation.

O careless sinners! that you did but know the love that you
unthank fully neglect, and the preciousness of the blood of
Christ which you despise! O that you did but know the
riches of the go.spel! O that you did but know, a little know,
the certainty, and the glory, and blessedness of that everlast-
ing life, which now you will not set your hearts upon, nor
be persuaded first and diligently to seek. Heb. xi. 6, and
xii. 2S; and Matt. vi. 13. Did you but know the endless
life with God which you now neglect, how quickly would
you cast away jour sin, how quickly would you change your
mind and life, your course and company, and turn the streams
of your affections, and lay your care another way? How re-
solutely would you scorn to yield to such temptations as now
deceive you and carry you away? How zealously would you
bestir yourselves for that most blessed life? How earnest
would you be with God in prayer? How diligent in hearing
and learning, and inquiring? How serious in meditating on
the laws of God? Ps. i. 2. How fearful of sinning in
thought, word, and deed? and how careful to please God and
grow in holiness? O what a changed people you would be!
And why should not the certain word of God be believed by
you, and prevail with you, which openeth to you these glori-
ous and eternal things?

Yea, let me tell you that even here on earth, you little
know the difference between the life which you refuse, and
the life which you choose? The sanctified are conversing
with God, when you dare scarce think of him, and when you
are conversing with but earth and flesh. Their conversation
is in heaven, when you are utter strangers to it, and your bel-
ly is your God, and you are minding earthly things. Phil,
iii. 18, 19, 20. They are seeking after the face of God,

40 PREFACE.

when you seek for nothing higher than this world. They
are busily laying up for an endless life, where they shall be
equal with the angels, (Luke xx. 36.) when you are taken up
with a shadow and a transitory thing of nought. How low
and base is your earthly, ileshly, sinful life, in comparison of
the noble spiritual life of true believers'? Many a time have I
looked on such men with grief and pity, to see them trudge
about the world, and spend their lives, and care, and labour,
for nothing but a little food and raiment, or a little fading pelf,
or Ileshly pleasures, or empty honours, as if they had no higher
things to mind. What difference is there between the lives
of these men and of the beasts that perish, that spend their time
in working and eating, and living, but that they may live?
They taste not of the inward heavenly pleasures upon which
believers taste and live. I had rather have a little of their com-
fort, which the forethoughts of their heavenly inheritance af-
ford them, though I had all their scorns and sufferings with
it, than to have all your pleasures and treacherous prosper-
ity. I would not have one of your secret pangs of con-
science, and dark and dreadful thoughts of death and the life
to come, for all that ever the world hath done for you, or all
that you can reasonably hope that it should do. If I were
in your unconverted carnal state, and knew but what I know,
and believe but what I now believe, methinks my life would
be a foretaste of hell: How oft should T be thinking of the
terrors of the Lord, and of the dismal day that is hastening
on! Sure death and hell would be still before me. I should
think of them by day, and dream of them by night; I should
lie down in fear, and rise in fear, and live in fear, jest death
should come before I were converted. I should have small
felicity in any thing that I possessed, and little pleasure hi
any company, and little joy in any tiling in the world, as
long as I knew myself to be under the curse and wrath of
God. I should be still afraid of hearing that voice, Thou
fool, this night shall thy soul he required of thee. Luke, Nii.
20. And that fearful sentence would be written upon mv eon-
science, There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.
Isaiah, xlviii. 22. Ivii. 21. O poor sinners! It is a more joy-
ful life than this, that you might live, if you were but willing,
but truly willing to hearken to Christ, and come borne to God.
You might then draw near to God with boldness, and call
him your Father, and comfortably trust him with your souls
and bodies. If you look upon the promises, you may say,
They are all mine. If upon the curse, you may say, Prom
this I am delivered. When yap read the law, yon ma\ see
what you are saved from. When you read the Gospel, you
may see him that redeemed you, and see the course of hia

love, and holy life, and sufferings, and trace him in his temp-
tations, tears, and blood, in the work of your salvation
You may see death conquered, and heaven opened, and your
resurrection and glorification provided for in the resurrection
and glorification of the Lord. If you look on the saints,
you may say, They are my brethren and companions. If
on the unsanctified, you may rejoice to think that you are
saved from that state. If you look upon the heavens, the sun,
and moon, and stars innumerable, you may think and say,
My Father's face is infinitely more glorious; it is higher mat-
ters that He hath prepared for his saints; yonder is but the
outward court of heaven. The blessedness that He hath pro-
mised me is so much higher that flesh and blood cannot be-
hold it. If you think of the grave, you may remember that
the glorified Spirit, a living Head, and a loving Father, have
all so near a relation to your dust, that it cannot be forgot-
ten or neglected, but will more certainly revive than the
plants and flowers in the spring: because that the soul is still
alive that is the root of the body; and Christ is ali\e, that
is the root of both. Even death, which is the king of fears,
may be remembered and entertained with joy, as being the
day of your deliverance from the remnant of sin and sorrow,
and the day which you believed, and hoped, and waited for,
when you shall see the blessed things which you had heard
of, and shall find by present joyful experience what it was to
choose the better part, and to be a sincere believing saint.
What say you, sir'? Is not this a more delightful life, to be as-
sured of salvation, and ready to die, than to live as the un-
godly, that have their hearts overcharged with surfeiting,
and drunkenness, and the cares of this life, and so that dav
comes upon them unawares'? Luke xxi. 34, 36. Might you
not live a comfortable life, if once you were made the heirs
of heaven, and sure to be saved when you leave the world!
O look about you then, and think what you do, and cast not
away such hopes as these for very nothing. The flesh and
world can give you no such hopes or comforts.

And besides all the misery that you bring upon yourselves,
you are the troublers of others as long as you are unconvert-
ed. You trouble magistrates to rule you by their laws; you
trouble ministers by resisting the light and guidance which
they offer you. Your sin and misery aVe the greatest grief
and trouble to them in the world. You trouble the com-
monwealth, and draw the judgments of God upon you. It
is you that most disturb the holy peace and order of the
churches, and hinder our union and reformation, and are the
shame and trouble of the churches where you intrude, and
of the places where vou are. Ah, Lord! howr heavy and
4

4% PREFACE.

sad a case is this, that even in England, where the gospel
doth abound above any other nation in the world, where
teaching is so plain and common, and all the helps we can
desire are at hand; when the sword has been hewing us,
and judgment has run as a fire through the land; when deliv-
erances have relieved us, and so many admirable mercies
have engaged us to God, and to the Gospel, and a holy life;
that, after all this, our cities, and towns, and countries,
shall abound with multitudes of unsanctitfed men, and
swarm with so much sensuality, as every where, to our grief,
we see] One would have thought, that after all this light,
and all this experience, and all these judgments and mercies
of God, the people of this nation should have joined togeth-
er, as one man, to turn to the Lord, and should have come
to their godly teacher, and lamented all their former sins,
and desired him to join with them, in public humiliation, to
confess them openly, and beg pardon of them from the Lord,
and should have craved his instruction for the time to come,
and be glad to be ruled by the Spirit within, and the minis-
ters of Christ without, according to the word of God. One
would think that, after such reason and Scripture evidence
as they hear, and after all these means and mercies, there
should not be an ungodly person left among us, nor a world-
ling, nor a drunkard, nor a hater of reformation, nor an ene-
my to holiness, to be found in all our towns and countries.
If we be not all agreed about some ceremonies or forms of
government, one would think that, before this, we should
have been agreed to live a holy and heavenly life, in obedi-
ence to God, his word, and ministers, and in love and peace
with one another. But, alas! how far are our people from
this course! Most of them, in most places, do set their hearts
on earthly things, and seek not " first the kingdom of God
and the righteousness thereof," but look on holiness as a
needless thing; their families are pravi rl( \»s, or else a few
heartless lifeless words must serve instead of lieartv In-
vent daily prayers (or perhaps only on the Lord's day, in the
evening): their children are not taught the knowledge of
Christ, and the covenant of grace, nor brought up in the
nurture of the Lord, though they firmly promised all this at
their baptism.

They instruct not their servants in the matters of salvation;
but so their work be done, they care not. There are
more railing speeches in their families than graciotM words
that tend to edification. I low few are the families that fear
the Lord, and inquire at his word and ministers how they
should live, and what they should do, and are willing to be
taught and ruled, and that heartily look after everlasting

life! And those few that God hath made so happy are
commonly the by-word of their neighbours. When we see
some live in drunkenness, and some in pride and worldli-
ness, and most of them have little care of their salvation,
though the cause be gross and past all controversy, yet will
they hardly be convinced of their misery, and more hardly
recovered and reformed; but, when we have done all that
we are able to save them from their sins, we leave the most of
them as we find them. And if, according to the law of God,
we cast them out of the communion of the church, when
they have obstinately rejected all our admonitions, they rage
at us as if we were their enemies, and their hearts are filled
with malice against us, and they wil? sooner set themselves
against the Lord, and his laws, and church, and ministers,
than against their deadly sins. This is the doleful case of
England: we have magistrates that countenance the ways of
godliness, and a happy opportunity for unity and reforma-
tion is before us, and faithful ministers long to see the right
ordering of the church and of the ordinances of God: but the
power of sin in our people doth frustrate almost all. No-
where can almost a faithful minister set up the unquestiona-
ble discipline of Christ, or put back the most scandalous
impenitent sinners from the communion of the church and
participation of the sacraments, but the most of the people
rail at them and revile them; as if these ignorant careless souls
were wiser than their teachers, or than God himself. And
thus, in the day of our visitation, when God calls upon us to
reform his church, though magistrates seem willing, and
faithful ministers seem willing, yet are the multitude of (he
people still unwilling, and have so blinded themselves, and
hardened their hearts, that, even in these days of light and
grace, they are the obstinate enemies of light and grace,
and will not be broitght by the calls of God to see their
folly, and know what is for their good. O that the people
of England knew at least in this their day, the things that
belong unto their peace, before they are hid from their
eyes! Luke xix. 42.

O foolish miserable souls! Gal. iii. 1. Who hath bewitched
your minds into such madness, and your hearts unto such
deadness, that you should be such mortal enemies to your-
selves, and go on so obstinately towards damnation, that
neither the word of God, nor the persuasions of men, can
change your minds, or hold your hands, or stop you, till you
are past remedy! Well, sinners! this life will not last al-
ways; this patience will not wait upon you still. Do not
think that you shall abuse your Maker and Redeemer, and
serve his enemies, and debase your souls, and trouble the

world, and wrong the church, and reproach the godly, and
grieve your teachers, and hinder reformation, and all this
upon free cost. You know not yet what this must cost you,
but you must shortly know, when the righteous God shall
take you in hand, who will handle you in another manner
than the sharpest magistrates or the plainest dealing pastors
did, unless you prevent the everlasting torments, by a sound
conversion and a speedy obeying of the call of God, " He
that hath an ear to hear, let him hear," while mercy hath a
voice to call.

One objection I find most common in the mouths of the
ungodly, especially of l^te years; they say, * We can do noth-
ing without God, Ave cannot have grace, if God will not give
it us; and, if he will, we shall quickly turn; if he have not
predestinated us, and will not turn us, how can we turn our-
selves, or be saved! It is not in him that wills nor in him that
runs.* And thus they think they are excused.

I have answered this formerly, and in this book; but let
me now say this much. 1. Though you cannot cure your-
selves, you can hurt and poison yourselves. It is God that
must sanctify your hearts; but who corrupted them! Will you
wilfully take poison, because you cannot cure yourselves!
Methinks you should the more forbear it. You should the
more take heed of sinning, if you cannot mend what sin doth
mar. 2. Though you cannot be converted without the spe-
cial grace of God, yet you must know that God giveth his
grace in the use of his holy means which he hath appointed to
that end; and common grace may enable you to forbear your
gross sinning (as to the outward act) and to use those means.
Can you truly say, that you do as much as you are able to do!
Are you not able to go by an alehouse door, or to forbear
the company that hardeneth you in sin! Are you not able to
hear the word, and think of what you heard when you come
home, and to consider with yourselves of your own condition
and of everlasting things! Are you not able to read good
books from day to day, at least on the Lord's day, and to
converse with those that fear the Lord! You cannot say
that you have done what you arc able. 3. And therefore
you must know that you can forfeit the grace and help of
God by your wilful sinning or negligence, though you can-
not, without grace, turn to God. If you will not do what
you can, it is just with God to deny you that grace by
which you might do more. 4. And, for GodV decrees, you
must know that they separate not the end and means, hut
tie them together. God never decreed 10 Save any but the
sanctified, nor to damn any bat the nnsanctifird God doth
as truly decree whether your land this year shall be barren or

fruitful, and just how long you shall live in the world, as he
hath decreed Avhether you shall be saved or not; and yet you
would think that man but a fool that would forbear ploughing
and sowing, and say, ' If God hath decreed that my ground
shall bear corn, it will bear, whether I plough and sow or
not. If God have decreed that I shall live, I shall live,
whether I eat or not; but, if he have not, it is not eating that
will keep me alive.' Do you know how to answer such a
man, or do you not? If you do, then you know how to an-
swer yourselves; for, the case is alike: God's decree is as
peremptory about your bodies as your souls: if you do not,
then try first these conclusions upon your bodies, before you
venture to try them on your souls: see first whether God will
keep you alive without food or raiment, and whether he will
give you corn without tillage and labour, and whether he
will bring you to your journey's end without your travel or
carriage; and, if you speed well in this, then try whether he
will bring you to heaven without your diligent use of means,
and sit down and say, We cannot sanctify ourselves.

Well, sirs, I have but three requests to you, and I have
done.

First, That you will seriously read over this small treatise;
and, if you have such as need it in your families, that you
would read it over and over^to them; and if those that fear
God would go now and then to their ignorant neighbours,
and read this or some other book to them of this sub-
ject, they might be a means of winning souls. If we can-
not entreat so small a labour of men for their own salvation,
as to read such short instructions as these, they set little by
themselves and will most justly perish.

Secondly, W^hen you have read over this book, I would
entreat you to go alone and ponder a little what you have
read, and bethink you, as in the sight of God, whether it be
not true, and do not nearly touch your souls, and whether it
be not time to look about you. And also entreat you, that
you will upon your knees beseech the Lord that he will open
your eyes to understand the truth, and turn your hearts to
the love of God, and beg of him all that saving grace which
you have so long neglected, and follow it on from day to
day, till your hearts be changed. And withal, that you will
go to your pastors, (that are set over you to take care of the
health and safety of your souls, as physicians do for the
health of your bodies,) and desire them to direct you what
course to take, and acquaint them with your spiritual estate,
that you may have the benefit of their advice and ministeri-
al help.

46 PREFACE.

Or, if you have not a faithful pastor at home, make use
of some other in so great a need.

Thirdly, When, by reading, consideration, prayer, and
ministerial advice, you are once acquainted with your sin
and misery, with your duty and remedy, delay not, but pres-
ently forsake your sinful company and courses, and turn to
God, and obey his call. As you love your souls, take heed
that ye go not on against so loud a call of God, and against
your own knowledge and conscience, lest it go worse with
you in the day of judgment than with Sodom and Gomorrah.
Inquire of God, as a man that is willing to know the truth,
and not be a wilful cheater of his soul. Search the holy
Scriptures daily, and see whether these things be so or not:
try impartially whether it be safer to trust heaven or earth,
and whether it be better to follow God or man, the Spirit or
the flesh, and better to live in holiness or sin, and whether
an unsanctified state be safe for you to abide in one day
longer; and when you have found out which is best, resolve
accordingly, and make your choice without any more ado.
Tf you will be true to your own souls, and do not love ever-
lasting torments, I beseech you, as from the Lord, that you
will but take this reasonable advice. O what happy towns
and countries, and what a happy nation might we have, if
we could but persuade our neighbours to agree to such a
necessary motion! What joyful men would all faithful min-
isters be, if they could but see their people truly heavenly
and holy; this would be the unity, the peace, the safely, the
glory, of our churches; the happiness of our neighbours, and
the comfort of our souls. Then how comfortably should we
preach pardon and peace to you, and deliver the sacraments,
which are the seals of peace to you! And with what love
and joy might we live among you! At your deathbed how
boldly might we comfort and encourage your departing souls!
And,' at your burial, how comfortably might we leave you in
the grave, in expectation to meet your souls in heaven, and to
see your bodies raised to that glory!

But, if still the most of you will go on in a careless, igno-
rant, fleshly, worldly, or unholy life, and all our desires and
labours cannot BO far prevail as to keep you from the wilful
damning of yourselves, we must then imitate our Lord, who
delighteth himself in those few that are jewels, and in a little
flock that shall receive the kingdom, when the most shall
reap the misery which they sowed, in nature excellent
things are few. The world' hath not many suns, or moons;
it is but a little of the earth that is gold or silver. Princes
and nobles are but a small part of the sons of men: and it

PREFACE. 47

is no great number that are learned, judicious, or wise, here in
the world. And, therefore, if the gate being strait and very
narrow, there be but few that find salvation, yet God will
have his glory and pleasure in those few. And, when Christ
shall come with his mighty angels in flaming fire, taking ven-
geance on them that know not God and obey not the gospel
of our Lord Jesus Christ, his coming will be glorified in his
saints, and admired in all true believers. 2 Thess. i. 7, 8,
9, 10.

And for the rest, as God the Father vouchsafed to create
them, and God the Son disdained not to bear the penalty of
their sins upon the cross, and did not judge such sufferings
in vain, though he knew that by refusing the sanctification
of the Holy Ghost they would finally destroy themselves, so
we, that are his ministers, though these be not gathered,
judge not our labour wholly lost. See Isa. xlix. 5.

Reader, I have done with thee, when thou hast perused
this book; but sin hath not yet done with thee, even those
that thou thoughtest had been forgotten long ago, and Satan
hath not yet done with thee, though now he be out of sight,
and God hath not yet done with thee, because thou wilt not
be persuaded to have done with the deadly reigning sin. I
have written thee this persuasive, as one that is going into
another world, where the things are seen that I here speak
of, and as one that knoAveth thou must be shortly there thy-
self. As ever thou wilt meet me with comfort before the
Lord that made us; as ever thou wilt escape the everlasting
plagues prepared for the final neglecters of salvation, and for
all that are not sanctified by the Holy Ghost; and love not
the communion of the saints as members of the holy catho-
lic church; and as ever thou hopest to see the face of Christ
the Judge, and of the majesty of the Father, with peace and
comfort, and to be received into glory when thou art turned
naked out of this world; I beseech thee, I charge thee, to
hear and obey the Call of God, and resolvedly to turn, that
thou mayst live. But, if thou wilt not, even when thou
hast no true reason for it, but because thou wilt not, I sum-
mon thee to answer it before the Lord, and require thee
there to bear me witness that I gave thee warning, and that
thou wast not condemned for want of a call to turn and live,
but because thou wouldst not believe it and obey it; which
also must be the testimony of

Thy serious Monitor,

RICHARD BAXTER.

December 11, 1657.

A CALL.

TO THE UNCOXVERTEI).

EZEKIEL XXXIII. 11.

Say unto them, As Hive, saith the Lord God, I have
no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that
the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye,
turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die,
O house of Israel?

It hath been the astonishing wonder of many a
man as well as me, to read in the holy Scriptures
how few will be saved, and that the greatest part
even of those that are called, will be everlastingly
shut out of the kingdom of heaven, and be tor-
mented with the devils in eternal fire. Infidels be-
lieve not this when they read it, and therefore they
must feel it; those that do believe it, are forced to
cry out with Paul, (Rom. xi. 13,) " O the depth of
the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of
God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and
his ways past finding out!" But nature itself doth
teach us all to lay the blame of evil works* upon the
doers; and therefore when we see any heinous thing
done, a principle of justice doth provoke us to in-
quire after him that did it, that the evil of the work
may return the evil of shame upon the author. If
we saw a man killed and cut in pieces by the way
we would presently ask, Oh! who did this cruel
5

50 A CALL TO

deed? If the town was wilfully set on fire, you
would ask, what wicked wretch did this? So when
we read that many souls will be miserable in hell
for ever, we must, needs think with ourselves, how
comes this to pass? and wThose fault is it? Who is
it that is so cruel as to be the cause of such a thing
as this ? and we can meet with few that will own the
guilt. It is indeed confessed by all, that Satan is
the cause; but that doth not resolve the doubt, be-
cause he is not the principal cause. He doth not
force men to sin, but tempts them to it, and leaves
it to their own wills whether they will do it or not.
He doth not carry men to an alehouse and force
open their mouths and pour in the drink; nor doth
he hold them that they cannot go to God's service;
nor doth he force their hearts from holy thoughts.
It lieth therefore between God himself and the sin-
ner; one of them must needs be the principal cause
of all this misery, whichever it is, for there is no
other to lay it upon; and God disclaimeth it; he
will not take it upon him; and the wicked disclaim it
usually, and they will not take it upon them, and this
is the controversy that is here managing in my text.
The Lord complaineth of the people; and the peo-
ple think it is the fault of God. The same controversy
Is handled, chap, xviii. 25; they plainly say, " that
the way of the Lord is not equal*' So here they
say, verse 19, " [f our transgressions and our sins
be upon us, and we pine away in them, how shall
we then live?" As if they should say, if we must
die, and be miserable, how can we help it? as if it
were not their fault but God's. Hut God, in my
text, doth clear himself of it, and telleth them how
they may help it if they will, ami persuadeth them
to use the means, and if they will not. he persuaded,
he lets them know that it is the fault of themselves;
and if this will not satisfy them, he will nut forbear
to punish them. It is he that will he the .Judge, and
he will judge them according to (heir ways; Ihey are
no judge of him or of themselves, as wanting au

THE UNCONVERTED. 51

thority, and wisdom, and impartiality, nor is it the
cavilling and quarrelling with God that shall serve
their turn, or save them from the execution of jus-
tice at which they murmur.

The words of this verse contain, 1 . God's purg-
' ation or clearing himself from the blame of their des-
1 truction. This he doth not by disowning his law,
that the wicked shall die, nor by disowning his judg-
ments and execution according to that law, or giving
them any hope that the law shall not be executed;
but by professing that it is not their death that he
takes pleasure in, but their returning, rather that
they may live; and this he confirmeth to them by
his oath. 2. An express exhortation to the wicked
to return; wherein God doth not only command, but
persuade and condescend also to reason the case with
them. Why will they die? The direct end of this
exhortation is, that they may turn and live. The
secondary or reserved ends, upon supposition that
this is not attained, are these two: First, To con-
vince them by the means which he used, that it is
not the fault of God if they be miserable. Secondly,
To convince them from their manifest wilfulness in
rejecting all his commands and persuasions, that it is
the fault of themselves, and they die, even because
they will die.

The substance of the texi doth lie in these ob-
servations following: —

Doctrine 1. It is the unchangeable law of God,
that wicked men must turn or die.

Doctrine 2. It is the promise of God, that the
wicked shall live, if they will but turn.

Doctrine 3. God takes pleasure in men's conver-
sion and salvation, but not in their death or damna-
tion, he had rather they would return and live, than
go on and die.

Doctrine 4. This is a most certain truth, which
because God would not have men to question, he
hath confirmed it to them solemnly by his oath.

52 A CALL TO

Doctrine 5. The Lord doth redouble his com-
mands and persuasions to the wicked to turn.

Doctrine 6. The Lord condescendeth to reason
the case with them; and asketh the wicked why
they will die?

Doctrine 7. If after all this the wicked will not
turn, it is not the fault of God that they perish but
of themselves; their own wilfulness is the cause of
their own damnation; they therefore die because
they will die.

Having laid the text open in these propositions,
I shall next speak somewhat of each of them in order,
though very briefly.

Doctrine 1. It is the unchangeable law of God,
that wicked men must turn, or die.

If you will believe God, believe this : there is but
one of these two ways for every wicked man, either
conversion or damnation. I know the wicked will
hardly be persuaded either of the truth or equity
of this. No wonder if the guilty quarrel with the
law. Few men are apt to believe that which they
would not have to be true, and fewer would have
that to be true which they apprehend to be against
them. But it is not quarrelling with the law, or with
the judge, that will save the malefactor. Believing
and regarding the law might have prevented his death,
but denying and accusing it will but hasten it. If it
were not so, an hundred would bring their reason
against the law, for one that would bring his reason
to the law, and men would rather choose to give
their reasons why they should nut be punished, than
to hear the commands and reasons of their governors
which require them to obey. The law was not
made for you to judge, but that you might be ruled
and judged by it.

But if there be any so blind as to venture to ques-
tion either the truth or the justice of this law of God,

THE UNCONVERTED. 53

I shall briefly give you that evidence of both, which,
methinks, should satisfy a reasonable man.

And first, if you doubt whether this he the word
of God, or not, besides a hundred other texts, you
may be satisfied by these few: — Matt, xviii, 3. " Ver-
ily I say unto you, except ye be converted and be-
come as little children, ye cannot enter into the king-
dom of God." John iii. 3. " Verily, verily, I say unto
vou, except a man be born again, he cannot see the
kingdom of God. " 2 Cor. v. 17. " If any man be in
Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed
away; behold, all things are become new." Col. iii.
9, 10. " Ye have put off the old man with his deeds,
and have put on the new man, which is renewed in
knowledge after the image of him that created him."
Heb. xii. 14. "Without holiness none shall see
God." Rom. viii. 8, 9. " So then they that are in
the flesh cannot please God. Now if any man have
not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." Gal. vi.
15. " For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision avail-
eth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new crea-
ture." 1 Pet. i. 3. "According to his abundant
grace he hath begotten us to a lively hope." Ver. 23.
" Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of
incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and
abideth for ever." 1 Pet. ii. 1,2." Wherefore laying
aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and
envies, and evil speaking, as new born babes desire
the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow
thereby." Psalm ix. 17. " The wicked shall be turn-
ed into hell, and all the nations that fdrget God."
Psalm xi. 4. " And the Lord loveth the righteous,
l)ut the wicked his soul hateth."

As I need not stay to open these texts which are
60 plain, so I think I need not add any more of that
multitude which speak the like. If thou be a man
that dost believe the word of God, here is already
enough to satisfy thee, that the wicked must be con-
verted or condemned. You are already brought so
far, that you must either confess that this is true, or

54 k CALL TO

say plainly, you will not believe the word of God.
And if once you be come to that pass, there is but
small hopes of you: look to yourselves as well as you
can, for it is like you will not be long out of hell.
You would be ready to fly in the face of him that
should give you the lie; and yet dare you give the lie
to God ? But if you tell God plainly you will not be-
lieve him, blame him not if he never warn you more,
or if he forsake you, and give you up as hopeless; for
to what purpose should he warn you, if you will not
believe him ? Should he send an angel from heaven to
you, it seems you would not believe. For an angel
can speak but the word of God; and if an angel should
bring you any other gospel, you are not to receive it,
but to hold him accursed. Gal. i. 8. And surely
there is no angel to be believed before the Son of God,
who came from the Father to bring us this doctrine.
If he be not to be believed, then all the angels in
heaven are not to be believed. And if you stand on
these terms with God, I shall leave you till he deal
with you in a more convincing way. God hath a
voice that will make you hear. Though he entreat
you to hear the voice of his gospel, he will make you
hear the voice of his condemning sentence, without
entreaty. We cannot make you believe against your
wills; but God will make you feel against your wills.

But let us hear what reason you have why you
will not believe this word of God, which tells us that
the wicked must be converted, or condemned. I
know your reason; it is because that you judge it un-
likely that God should be so unmerciful: you think
it cruelty to damn men everlastingly lor so small a
thing as a sinful life. And this leads us to the
second thing, which is to justify the equity of God
in his laws and judgments.

And first, I think you will not deny but that it is
most suitable to an immortal soul, to be ruled by laws
that promise an immortal reward, and threaten an
endless punishment Otherwise the law should not
be suited to the nature of the subject, who will not

THE UNCONVERTED. 55

be fully ruled by any lower means than the hopes or
fears of everlasting things : as it is in cases of temporal

Eunishment, if a law were now made that the most
einous crimes shall be punished with a hundred
years' captivity, this might be of some efficacy, as be-
ing equal to our lives. But, if there had been no
other penalties before the flood, when men lived
eight or nine hundred years, it would not have been
sufficient, because men would know that they might
have so many hundred years impunity afterwards.
So it is in our present case.

2. I suppose that you will confess, that the promise
of an endless and inconceivable glory is not so unsuit-
able to the wisdom of God, or the case of roan: and
why then should you not think so of the threatening
of an endless and unspeakable misery!

3. When you find it in the word of God that so
it is, and so it will be, do ve think yourselves fit
to contradict this word? Will you call your Maker
to the bar, and examine his word upon the accusa-
tion of falsehood ? Will you sit upon him, and judge
him by the law of your conceits? Are you wiser,
and better, and more righteous than he? Must the
God of heaven come to school to you to learn wis-
dom? Must Infinite Wisdom learn of folly, and
Infinite Goodness be corrected by a swinish sinner,
that cannot keep himself an hour clean? Must the
Almighty stand at the bar of a worm ? O horrid
arrogancy of senseless dust! shall ever mole, or clod,
or dunghill, accuse the sun of darkness, and under-
take to illuminate the world? Where were you
when the Almighty made the laws, that he did not
call you to his counsel ? Surely he made them before
you were born, without desiring your advice; and
you came into the world too late to reverse them, if
you could have done so great a work. You should
have stepped out of your nothingness and have con-
tradicted Christ when he was on earth, or Moses be-
fore him, or have saved Adam and his sinful progeny
from the threatened death, that so there might have

56 A CALL TO

been no need of Christ. And what if God withdraw
his patience and sustaining power, and let you drop
into hell while you are quarrelling with his word,
will you then believe that there is a hell ?

4. If sin be such an evil that it requireth the death
of Christ for its expiation, no wonder if it deserve our
everlasting misery.

5. And if the sin of the devils deserved an endless
torment, why not also the sin of man ?

6. And methinks you should perceive that it is not
possible for the best of men, much less for the wick-
ed, to be competent judges of the desert of sin.
Alas! we are both blind and partial. You can
never know fully the desert of sin, till you fully know
the evil of sin; and you can never fully know the
evil of sin, till you fully know, 1. The excellency of
the soul which it deformeth. 2. And the excellen-
cy of holiness which it obliterates. 3. The reason
and excellency of the law which it violates. 4. The
excellency of the glory which it despises. 5. The
excellency and office of reason which it treadeth
down. 6. No, nor till you know the infinite excel-
lency, almightiness and holiness of that God against
whom it is committed. When you fully know all
these, you shall fully know the desert of sin besides.
You know that the offender is too partial to judge the
law, or the proceeding of his judge. We judge by
feeling which blinds our reason. We see, in common
worldly things, that most men think the cause is right
which is their own, and that all is wrong that is done
against them; and let the most wise or just impartial
friends persuade them to the contrary, and it is all in
vain. There are few children but think the father
is unmerciful, or dealeth hardly with them if he
whip them. There is scarce the vi lest wretch but
thinketh the church doth wrong him Lf I hey excom-
municate him: or scarce a thief or murderer that is
hanged, but would accuse the law and judge of cru-
elty, if that would serve their turn.

7. Can you think that an unholy soul is fit for

THE UNCONVERTED. 57

heaven? Alas, they cannot love God here, nor do
him any service which he can accept. They are
contrary Jto God; they loathe that which he most
loveth, and love that" which he abhorreth. They
are incapable of that imperfect communion with him
which his saints here partake of. How then can
they live in that perfect love of him, and full delights
and communion with him, which is the blessedness
of heaven? Ye do not accuse yourselves of unmerci-
fulness, if you make not your enemy your bosom
counsellor; or if you take not your swine to bed and
board with you : no, nor if you take away his life
though he never sinned ; and yet you will blame the
absolute Lord, the most wise and gracious Sovereign
of the world, if he condemn the unconverted to
perpetual misery.

Use. — I beseech you now, all that love your souls,
that, instead of quarrelling with God and with his
word, you will presently stoop to it, and use it for
your good. All you that are yet unconverted in this
assembly, take this as the undoubted truth of God : —
You must, ere long, be converted or condemned;
there is no other way but to turn or die. When God,
that cannot lie, hath told you this; when you hear
it from the Maker and Judge of the world, it is time
for him that hath ears to hear. By this time you
may see what you have to trust to. You are but
dead and damned men, except you will be converted.
Should I tell you otherwise, I should deceive you
with a lie. Should I hide this from you, I should
undo you, and be guilty of your blood, as the verses
before my text assure me. Verse 8. " When I say
to the wicked man, O wicked man, thou shalt surely
die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from
his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity;
but his blood will I require at thine hand." You
see then, though this be a rough and unwelcome
doctrine, it is such as we must preach, and you must
hear. It is easier to hear of hell than feel it. If

58 A CALL TO

your necessities did not require it, we would not gall
your tender ears with truths that seern so harsh and
grievous. Hell would not be so full, if people were
but willing to know their case, and to hear and think
of it. The reason why so few escape it is, because
they strive not to enter in at the strait gate of con-
version, and go the narrow way of holiness, while
they have time : and they strive not, because they
are not awakened to a lively feeling of the danger they
are in; and they are not awakened because they are
loth to hear or think of it: and that is partly through
foolish tenderness and carnal self love, and partly be-
cause they do not well believe the word that threat-
eneth it. If you will not thoroughly believe this
truth, methinks the weight of it should force you to
remember it, and it should follow you, and give you
no rest till you are converted. If you had but once
heard this word by the voice of an angel, " Thou
must be converted," or " condemned: turn, or die: "
would it not stick in your minds, and haunt you
night and day? so that in your sinning you would re-
member it, as if the voice were still in your ears,
" Turn, or die ! " O happy were your souls if it might
thus work with you and never be forgotten, or let
you alone till it have driven home your hearts to
God. But if you will cast it out by fbrgetfulness or
unbelief, how can it work to your conversion and sal-
vation? But take this with you to your sorrow,
though you may put this out of your minds, you can-
not put it out of the Bible, but there it will stand as a
sealed truth, which you shall experimentally know
for ever, that there is no other way but turn, or
die.

O what is the matter then that the hearts of sin-
nys are not pierced with such ;i weighty truth? A
man would think now, that every unconverted soul
that hears these words should be pricked to the
heart, and think with themselves. ; This is my own
case,' and never be quiet till they found themselves
converted. Believe it, sirs, this drowsy careless tern-

THE UNCONVERTED. 59

per will not last long. Conversion and condemna-
tion are both of them awakening things, and one of
them will make you feel ere long. I can foretell it as
truly as if I saw it with my eyes, that either grace or
hell will shortly bring these matters to the quick,
and make you say, 'What have I done? what a
foolish wicked course have I taken? ' The scornful
and the stupid state of sinners will last but a little
while; as soon as they either turn or die, the pre-
sumptuous dream will be at an end, and then their
wits and feeling will return.

But I foresee there are two things that are likely
to harden the unconverted, and make me lose all my
labour, except they can be taken out of the way; and
that is the misunderstanding on those two words,
the wicked and turn. Some will tlunk to themselves,
' It is true, the wicked must turn or die; but what is
that to me, I am not wicked; though I am a sinner,
all men are.5 Others will think, ' It is true that we
must turn from our evil ways, but I am turned long
ago, I hope this is not now to do.' And thus while
wicked men think they are not wicked, but are al-
ready converted, we lose all our labour in persuading
them to turn. I shall therefore, before I go any fur-
ther, tell you here who are meant by the wicked ;
and who they are that must turn or die; and also
what is meant by turning, and who they are that are
truly converted. And this I have purposely reserved
for this place, preferring the method that fits my
end.

And here you may observe, that in the sense of
the text, a wicked man and a converted man are
contraries. No man is a wicked man that is convert-
ed; and no man is a converted man that is wicked;
so that to be a wicked man and to be an unconverted
man, is all one; and therefore in opening one, we
shall open both.

Before I can tell you what either wickedness or
conversion is, I must go to the bottom, anu fetch up
the matter from the beginning.

60 A CALL TO

It pleased the great Creator of the world to make
three sorts of living creatures. Angels he made pure
spirits without flesh, and therefore he made them
only for heaven, and not to dwell on earth. Brute?
were made flesh, without immortal souls, and there-
fore they were made only for earth, and not for heav-
en. Man is of a middle nature, hetween both, as
partaking of both flesh and spirit, and therefore lie
was made both for heaven and earth. But as his
flesh is made to be but a servant to his spirit, so is
he made for earth but as his passage or way to heav-
en, and not that this should be his home or happi-
ness. The blessed state that man was made for,
was to behold the glorious majesty of the Lord, and
to praise him among his Holy Angels, and to love
him, and be filled with his love for ever. And as
this was the end that man was made for, so God
did give him means that were fitted to the attaining
of it. These means were principally two: First
the right inclination and disposition of the mind of
man. Secondly, The right ordering of his life and
practice. For the first, God suited the disposition of
man unto his end, giving him such knowledge of God
as was fit for his present state, and a heart disposed
and inclined to Gcxl in holy love. But yet he did
not fix or confirm him in this condition, but, having
made him a free agent, he left him in the han^s of
his own free will. For the second, God did that
which belonged to him; that is, he gave him a per-
fect law, required him to continue in the love of God,
and perfectly to obey him. By the wilful breach of
this law, man did not only forfeit his hopes of ever-
lasting life, but also turned his heart from God, and
fixed it on these lower fleshly things, and hereby
blotted out the spiritual image of God from his soul;
so that man did both fall short of the glory of God.
which was his end, and put himself out pi the way
by which he should have attained it, and this both
as to the frame of his heart, and of his life. The
holy inclination and love of his soul to God, he lost,

and instead of it he contracted ar^inclinat ion and love
to the pleasing of his flesh, or carnal self, by earthly
things; growing strange to God and acquainted with
the creature. And the course of this life was suited
to the bent and inclination of his heart; he lived to
his carnal self, and not to God; he sought the crea-
ture, for the pleasing of his flesh, instead of seeking
to please the Lord. With this nature or corrupt
inclination we are all now born into the world; "for
who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?" Job
xvi. 4. As a lion hath a fierce and cruel nature be-
fore he doth devour; and an adder hath a venomous
nature before she sting, so in our infancy we have
those sinful natures or inclinations, before we think,
or speak, or do amiss. And hence springeth all the
sin of our lives; and not only so, but when God hath
of his mercy, provided us a remedy, even the Lord
Jesus Christ, to be the Saviour of our souls, and
bring us back to God again, we naturally love our
present state, and are loth to be brought out of it,
and therefore are set against the means of our recov-
ery: and though custom hath taught us to thank
Christ for his good-will, yet carnal self persuades us
to refuse his remedies, and to desire to be excused,
when we are commanded to take the medicines which
he offers, and are called to forsake all and follow him
to God and glory.

I pray you read over this leaf again, and mark it,
for in these few words you have a true description
of our natural state, and consequently of wicked man;
for every man that is in the state of corrupted nature
is a wicked man, and in a state of death.

By this also you are prepared to understand what
it is to be converted : to which end you must further
know, that the mercy of God, not willing that man
should perish in his sin, provided a remedy, by caus-
ing his Son to take our nature, and being, in one per-
son, God and man, to become a Mediator between
God and man, and by dying for our sins on the cross,
to ransom us from the curse of God and the power

1

62 A CALL TO

of the devil. And having thus redeemed us, the
Father hath delivered us into his hands as his own.
Hereupon the Father and the Mediator do make a
new law and covenant for man, not like the first,
which gave life to none but the perfectly obedient,
and condemned man for every sin; but Christ hath
made a law of grace, or a promise of pardon and
everlasting life to all that, by true repentance, and by
faith in Christ, are converted unto God; like an act
of oblivion, which is made by a prince to a company
of rebels, on condition they will lay down arms and
come in, and be loyal subjects for the time to come.

But, because the Lord knoweth that the heart of
man is grown so wicked, that, for all this, men will
not accept of the remedy if they be left to themselves,
therefore, the Holy Ghost hath undertaken it as his
office to inspire the Apostles, and seal up the Scrip-
tures by miracles and wonders, and to illuminate and
convert the souls of the elect.

So by this much you see, that as there are three
persons in the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Ghost, so each of these persons have
their several works, which are eminently ascribed
to them.

The Father's works were, to create us, to rule us,
as his rational creatures, by the law of nature, and
judge us thereby; and in mercy to provide us a Re-
deemer when we were lost; and to send his Son, and
accept his ransom.

The works of the Son for us were these: to ran-
som and redeem us by his suffering and righteous-
ness; to give out the promise or law of grace, and
rule and judge the world as their Redeemer, on terms
of grace; and to make intercession for us, that the
benefits of his death may be communicated; and to
send the Holy Ghost, which the Father also doth
by the Son.

The works of the Holy Ghost, for us, are these:
to indite the holy Scriptures, by inspiring and guid-
ing the Apostles, and sealing the word, by his mi

THE UNCONVERTED. 63

raculous gifts and works, and the illuminating and
exciting the ordinary ministers of the gospel, and so
enabling them and helping them to publish that
word; and by the same word illuminating and con-
verting the souls of men. So that as you could not
have been reasonable creatures, if the Father had
not created you, nor have had any access to God, if
the Son had not redeemed you, so neither can you
have a part in Christ, or be saved, except the Holy
Ghost do sanctify you.

So that by this time you may see the several causes
of this work. The Father sendeth the Son : the Son
redeems us and maketh the promise of grace: the
Holy Ghost inditeth and sealeth this gospel: the
Apostles are the secretaries of the Spirit to write it;
the preachers of the gospel to proclaim it, and per-
suade men to open it: and the Holy Ghost doth make
their preaching effectual, by opening the hearts of
men to entertain it. And all this to repair the image
of God upon the soul, and to set the heart upon God
again, and take it off the creature and carnal self to
which it is revolted, and so to turn the current of the
life into a heavenly course, which before was earthly;
and all this by entertaining of Christ by faith, who
is the Physician of the soul.

By what I have said, you may see what it is to be
wicked, and what it is to be converted; which, I
think, will be yet plainer to you, if I describe them
as consisting of their several parts. And for the
first, a wicked man may be known by these three
things : —

First, He is one who placeth his chief affections
on earth, and loveth the creature more than God, and
his fleshly prosperity above the heavenly febcity.
He savoureth the things of the flesh, but neither
discerneth nor savoureth the things of the Spirit;
though he will say, that heaven is better than earth,
yet he doth not really so esteem it to himself. If he
might be sure of earth, he would let go heaven, and
had rather stay here than be removed thither. A

64 A CALL TO

life of perfect holiness in the sight of God, and in his
love and praises for ever in heaven, doth not find such
liking with his heart, as a life of health, and wealth,
and honour here upon earth. And though he falsely
profess that he loves God above all, yet indeed he
never felt the power of divine love within him, but
his mind is more set on the world or fleshly pleasures
than on God. In a word, whoever loves earth above
heaven, and fleshly prosperity more than God, is a
wicked, unconverted man.

On the other hand, a converted man is illuminated
to discern the loveliness of God, and so far believeth
the glory that is to be had with God, that his heart
is taken up with it and set more upon it than any
thing in this world. He had rather see the face of
God, and live in his everlasting love and praises, than
have all the wealth or pleasures of the world. He
seeth that all things else are vanity, and nothing but
God can fill the soul; and therefore let the world go
which way it will, he layeth up his treasures and
hopes in heaven, and for that he is resolved to let go
all. fAs the fire doth mount upward, and the needle
that is touched with the loadstone still turns to the
north, so the converted soul is inclined unto God.
Nothing else can satisfy him : nor can he find any
content and rest but in his love. In a word, all that
are converted do esteem and love God better than
all the world, and the heavenly felicity is dearer to
them than their fleshly prosperity. The proof of
what I have said you may find in these places «>f
Scripture: Phil. iii. 18, 21. Matt. vi. 19, 20, 21.
Col. iii. 1—4. Rom. viii. 5—9, 18, 23. Psalm lxxiii.
25, 26.

Secondly, A wicked man is one that makes it the
principal business of his life to prosper in the world,
and attain his fleshly ends. And though he may
read, and hear, and do much in the outward duties
of religion, and forbear disgraceful sins, yet this is all
but by the by, and he never makes it the principal
business of his life to please God, and attain ever-

THE UNCONVERTED. 65

lasting glory, and puts off God with the leavings
of the worid, and gives him no more service than
the flesh can spare, for he will not part with all for
heaven.

On the contrary, a converted man is one that
makes it the principal care and business of his life to
please God, and to be saved, and takes all the bless-
ings of this life but as accommodations in his journey
towards another life, and useth the creature in sub-
ordination to God; he loves a holy life, and longs to
be more holy; he hath no sin but what he hateth,
and longeth, and prayeth, and striveth to be rid
of. The drift and bent of his life is for God, and if
he sin, it is contrary to the very bent of his heart and.
life; and therefore he rises again and lamenteth it,
and dares not wilfully live in any known sin. There
is nothing in this world so dear to him but he can give
it up to God, and forsake it for him and the hopes of
glorv. All this you may see in Col. iii. 1 — 5. Matt,
vi. 20, 33. Luke xviii. 22, 23, 29. Luke xiv. 18, 24,
26, 27. Rom. viii. 13. Gal. v. 24. Luke xii. 21, &c.

Thirdly, The soul of a wicked man did never tru-
ly discern and relish the mystery of redemption, nor
thankfully entertain an offered Saviour, nor is he
taken up with the love of the Redeemer, nor willing
to be ruled by him as the Physician of his soul, that he
may be saved from the guilt and power of his sins,
and recovered to God ; but his heart is insensible of
this unspeakable benefit, and is quite against the
healing means by which he should be recovered.
Though he may be willing to be outwardly religious,
yet he never resigns up his soul to Christ, and to
the motions and conduct of his word and Spirit.

On the contrary, the converted soul having felt
himself undone by sin, and perceiving that he hath
lost his peace with God and hopes of heaven, and is
in danger of everlasting misery, doth thankfully en-
tertain the tidings of redemption, and believing in the
Lord Jesus as his only Saviour, resigns himself up
to him for wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and
6

66 A CALL TO

redemption He takes Christ as the life of his soul,
and lives by him, and uses him as a salve for every
sore, admiring the wisdom and love of God in this
wonderful work of man's redemption. In a word,
Christ doth even dwell in his heart by faith, and
the life that he now liveth is by the faith of the
Son of God, that loved him, and gave himself for him ;
yea, it is not so much he that liveth, as Christ in
him. For these, see Job i. 11, 12. and iii. 19, 20.
Rom. viii. 9. Phil. iii. 7—10. Gal. ii. 20. Job xv.
2, 3, 4. 1 Cor. i. 20. ii. 2.

You see now in plain terms from the Word of God,
who are the wicked and who are the converted. Ig-
norant people think, that if a man be no swearer, nor
curser, nor railer, nor drunkard, nor fornicator, nor
extortioner, nor wrong any body in his dealings,
and if he come to church and say his prayers,
he cannot be a wicked man. Or if a man that hath
been guilty of drunkenness, swearing or gaming, or
the like vices, do but forbear them for the time to
come, they think that this is a converted man. Oth-
ers think if a man that hath been an enemy, and
scorner at godliness, do but approve it, and be hated
for it by the wicked, as the godly are, that this must
needs be a converted man. And some are so foolish
as to think that they are converted, by taking up some
new opinion, and falling into some dividing party.
And some think, if they have but been affrighted by
the fears of hell, and had convictions of conscience;
and thereupon have purposed and promised amend-
ment, and take up a life of civil behaviour, and out-
ward religion, that this must needs be true conver-
sion. And these are the poor deluded souls that,
are like to lose the benefit of all our persuasions; and
when they hear that the Wicked must turn or die,
they think that this is not spoken t<> them, for they
are not wicked, but are turned already. And there-
fore it is that Christ told some of the rulers of the
Jews who were greater and more civil than the com-
mon people, that " publicans and harlots go into the

THE UNCONVERTED. 67

kingdom of Christ before them." Matt. xxi. 31. Not
that a harlot or gross sinner can be saved without
conversion; but because it was easier to make these
gross sinners perceive their sin and misery, and the
necessity of a change, than the more civil sort, who
' delude themselves by thinking that they are convert-
ed already, when they are not.

O sirs, conversion is another kind of work than
most are aware of. It is not a small matter to bring
an earthly mind to heaven, and to show man the
amiable excellencies of God, till he be taken up in
such love to him that can never be quenched; to
break the heart for sin, and make him fly for refuge
to Christ, and thankfully embrace him as the life
of his soul; to have the very drift and bent of the
heart and life changed; so that a man renounceth
that which he took for his felicity, and placeth his*
felicity where he never did before; and lives not
to the same end, and drives not on the same design
in the world, as he formerly did. In a word, he
that is in Christ is a " new creature: old things are
passed away: behold, all things are become new."
2. Cor. v. 17. He hath a new understanding, a new
will and resolution, new sorrows, and desires, and love,
and delight; new thoughts, new speeches, new com-
pany, (if possible,) and a new conversation. Sin, that
before was a jesting matter with him, is now so
odious and terrible to him, that he flies from it as
from death. The world, that was so lovely in his
eyes, doth now appear but as vanity and vexation:
God, that was before neglected, is now the only
happiness of his soul : before he was forgotten, and
every lust preferred before him, but now he is set
next the heart, and all things must give place to
him; the heart is taken up in the attendance and
observance of him, is grieved when he hides his
face, and never thinks itself well without him. Christ
himself, that was wont ito be slightly thought of, is
now his only hope and refuge, and he lives upon him
as on his daily bread; he cannot pray without him,

63 A CALL TO

nor rejoice without him, nor think, nor speak, nor
live without him. Heaven itself, that before was
looked upon hut as a tolerable reserve, which he
hoped might serve his turn better than hell, when
he could not stay any longer in the world, is now
taken for his home, the place of his only hope and
rest, where he shall see, and love, and praise that
God that hath his heart already. Hell, that did
seem before but as a bugbear to frighten men from
sin, doth now appear to be a real misery, that is not
to be ventured on, nor jested with. The works of
holiness, of which belbre he was weary, and thought
to be more than needful, are now both his rec-
reation, and his business, and the trade that he lives
upon. The Bible, which was before to him but al-
most as a common book, is now as the law of God;
as a letter written to him, and subscribed with the
name of the Eternal Majesty; it is the rule of his
thoughts, and words, and deeds; the commands are
binding, the threats are dreadful, and the promises
of it speak life to his soul. The godly, that seemed
to him but like other men, are now the most excel-
lent and happy on earth. And the wicked that were
his playfellows, are now his grief; and he that could
laugh at their sins, is readier now to weep for their
sin and misery: — Psalm xvi. 3. xv. 4. Phil. iii. 18.
" But to the saints that are in the earth, and to the
excellent, in whom is all my delight." " In whose
eyes a vile person is contemned; but he honoureth
them that fear the Lord: he that sweareth to his
own hurt, and changeth not." " For many walk,
of whom I have told you often, and now tell you
even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross
of Christ." In short, he hath a new end in his
thoughts, and a new way in his endeavours, and
therefore his heart and life are new. Before, his car-
nal self was his end, and his pleasure and world-
ly profits and credit were his way; and now God and
everlasting glory are his end, and Christ, and the Spir-
it, and word, and ordinances. Holiness to God, and

THE UNCONVERTED. Wf

righteousness and mercy to men, these are his way.
Before, self was the chief ruler, to which the mat-
ters of God and conscience must stoop and give
place; and now God, in Christ, by the Spirit, word
and ministry, is the chief ruler, to whom both self
and all the matters of self, must give place. So that
this is not a change in one, or two, or twenty points,
but in the whole soul, and in the very end and bent of
the conversation. A man may step out of one path
into another, and yet have his face the same way,
and be still going towards the same place; but it is
another matter to turn quite back, and take his
journey quite the contrary way, to a contrary place.
So it is here, a man may turn from drunkenness to
thrifliness, and forsake his good fellowship, and other
gross disgraceful sins, and set upon some duties of
religion, and yet be still going to the same end as be-
fore, intending his carnal self above all, and giving it
still the government of his soul; but when he is con-
verted, this self is denied, and taken down, and God
is set up, and his face is turned the contrary way :
and he that before was addicted to himself, and lived
to himself, is now, by sanctification, devoted to God,
and liveth unto God. Before, he asked himself
what he should do with his time, his parts, and his
estate, and for himself he used them; but now he
asketh God what he shall do with them, and useth
them for him. Before he would please God so far
as might accord with the pleasure of his flesh and
carnal self, but not to any great displeasure of them;
but now he will please God, let flesh and self be
never so much displeased. This is the great change
that God will make upon all that shall be saved.

You can say, that the Holy Ghost is our sanc-
tifier: but do you know what sanctification is?
Why, this is what I have now opened to you; and
every man and woman in the world must have this,
or be condemned to everlasting misery. They must
turn or die.

Do you believe all this, sirs, or do you not?

70 A CALL TO

Surely you dare not say, you do not; for it is past
a doubt or denial. These are not controversies,
where one learned pious man is of one mind, and
another of another; where one party saith this, and
the other saith that. Every sect among us that
deserve to be called Christians, are all agreed in
this that I have said; and if you will not believe
the God of truth, and that in a case where every
sect and party do believe him, you are utterly
inexcusable.

But if you do believe this, how comes it to pass
that you live so quietly in an unconverted state?
Do you know that you are converted? and can you
find this wonderful change upon your souls? Have
you been thus born again, and made new? Are not
these strange matters to many of you, and such as
you never felt within yourselves? If you cannot tell
the day or week of your change, or the very sermon
that converted you, yet do you find that the work is
done, and such a change indeed there is, and that
you have such hearts as are before described ? Alas !
the most do follow their worldly business, and little
trouble their minds with such thoughts. And if
they be restrained from scandalous sins, and can say,
"Tarn no whoremonger, nor thief, nor curser, nor
swearer, nor tippler, nor extortioner; I go to church,
and say my prayers;" they think that this is true
conversion, and they shall be saved as well as any.
Alas! this is foolish cheating of yourselves. This
is too much contempt of an endless glory, and too
gross neglect of your immortal souls. Can you make
so light of heaven and hell? Your corpse will shortly
lie in the dust, and angels or devils will presently
seize upon your sours; and every man or woman of
you all will shortly be among other company, and
in another case than now you are. You will dwell
in these houses but a little longer: you will work in
your shops and fields but a little longer; you will sit
in these seats and dwell on this earth but a little long-
er; you will see with these eyes, and hear with these

THE UNCONVERTED.

71

ears, and speak with these tongues, but a little long-
er, till the resurrection-day; and can you make shift
to forget this? O what a place will you shortly be
in of joy or torment ! O what a sight will you shortly
see in heaven or hell ! O what thoughts will shortly
fill your hearts with unspeakable delight or horror !
What work will you be employed in ! to praise the
Lord with saints and angels, or to cry out in fire un-
quenchable with devils; and should all this be forgot-
ten ? And all this will be endless, and sealed up by
an unchangeable decree. Eternity, eternity will be
the measure of your joys or sorrows: and can this be
forgotten? And all this is true, sirs, most certainly
true. When you have gone up and down a little
longer, and slept and awaked a few times more, you
will be dead and gone, and find all true that now I
tell you: and yet canyon now so much forget it?
You shall then remember that you heard this ser-
n ion, and that, this day or this place, you wrere re-
minded of these things, and perceive them matters a
thousand times greater than either you or I could
iiere conceive; and yet shall they be now so much
forgotten?

Beloved friends, if the Lord had not awakened me
to believe and lay to heart these things myself, I
should have remained in a dark and selfish state,
and have perished for ever; but if he have truly
made me sensible of them, it will constrain me to
compassionate you as well as myself. If your eyes
were so far opened as to see hell, and you saw your
neighbours, that were unconverted, dragged thither
with hideous cries; though they were such as you
accounted honest people on earth, and feared no such
danger themselves, such a sight would make you
go home and think of it, and think again, and make
you warn all about you, as that lost worldling
(Luke xvi. 28.) wrould have had his brethren warn-
ed, lest they come to that" place of torment. Why,
faith is a kind of sight; it is the eye of the soul, the
evidence of things not seen. If I believe God, it is

^2 A CALL TO

next to seeing; and therefore I beseech you excuse
me, if I he half as earnest with you about these mat-
ters, as if I had seen them. If I must die to-mor-
row, and it were in my power to come again from
another world, and tell you what I had seen, would
you not be willing to hear me? and would you not
believe, and regard what I should tell you? If I might
preach one sermon to you after I am dead, and have
seen what is done in the world to come, would you
not have me plainly speak the truth, and would you
not crowd to hear me, and would you not lay it to
heart? But this must not be; God hath his appointed
way of teaching you by Scriptures and ministers, and
he will not humour unbelievers so far as to send men
from the dead to them, and alter his established
way; if any man quarrel with the sun, God will not
humour him so far as to set up a clearer light.
Friends, I beseech you regard me now, as you would
do if I should come from the dead to you; for I can
give you as full assurance of the truth of what I say
to you, as if I had been there and seen it with my
eyes; for it is possible for one from the dead to de-
ceive you; but Jesus Christ can never deceive you;
the Word of God delivered in Scripture, and seal-
ed by miracles, and holy workings of the Spirit,
can never deceive you. Believe this or believe
nothing. Believe and obey this, or you are undone.
Now, as ever you believe the word of God, and as
ever you care for the salvation of your souls, let me
beg of you this reasonable request, and I beseech
you (feny me not: That you would, without any
more delay, when you are gone from hence, remem-
ber what you have heard, and enter into an earnest
search of your hearts, and say to yourselves — It is
so indeed; must I turn or die?" Must I be converted
or condemned ? It is time for me then to look about
me before it be too late. O why did not I look after
this till now? Why did I venturously put off or neg-
lect so great a business? Was I awake, or in my
wits? O blessed God, what a mercy it is that thou

THE UNCONVERTED. 73

didst not cut off my life all this while, before I had
any certain hope of eternal life ! Well, God forbid
that I should neglect this work any longer. What
state is my soul in? Am I converted, or am I not?
Was ever such a change or work done upon my
soul ? Have I been illuminated by the word and Spirit
of the Lord, to see the odiousness of sin, the need of
a Saviour, the love of Christ, and the excellencies of
God and glory? Is my heart broken or humbled
within me, for my former life? Have I thankfully
entertained my Saviour and Lord, that offered him-
self with pardon and life for my soul? Do I hate my
former sinful life, and the remnant of every sin that
is in me? Do I fly from them as my deadly enemies?
Do I give up myself to a life of holiness and obedi-
ence to God? Do I love it, and delight in it? Can 1
truly say that I am dead to the world and carnal self,
and that I live for God and the glory which he hath
promised ? Hath heaven more of my estimation and
resolution than earth? And is God the dearest and
highest in my soul? Once, I am sure, I lived princi-
pally to the world and flesh, and God had nothing
but some heartless services, which the world could
spare, and which were the leavings of the flesh. Is
my heart now turned another way? Have I a new
design and a new end, and a new train of holy affec-
tions? Have I set my hopes and heart in heaven?
And is it not the scope, and design, and bent of my
heart, to get well to heaven and see the glorious face
of God, and live in his love and praise? And when 1
sin, is it against the habitual bent and design of my
heart? And do I conquer all gross sins, and am I
weary and willing to be rid of my infirmities? This
is the state of converted souls. And thus it must be
with me, or I must perish. Is it thus with me in-
deed, or is it not? It is time to get this doubt resolv-
ed before the dreadful Judge resolve it. I am not
such a stranger to my own heart and life, but I may
somewhat perceive whether I am thus converted or
not: if I be not, it will do me no good to flatter my
7

74 A CALL TO

soul with false conceits and hopes. I am resolved
no more to deceive myself, but endeavour to know
truly whether I be converted or not : that if I be, I
may rejoice in it, and glorify my gracious Lord, and
comfortably go on till I reach the crown: and if I am
not, I may set myself to beg and seek after the grace
that should convert me, and may turn without any
more delay. For, if I find in time that I am out of
the way, by the help of Christ I may turn and be re-
covered, but if I stay till either my heart be forsaken
of God in blindness or hardness, or till I be catched
away by death, it is then too late. There is no place
for repentance and conversion then; I know it must
be now or never.

Sirs, this is my request to you, that you will but
take your hearts to task, and thus examine them till
you see if it may be, whether you are converted or
not P And if you cannot find it out by your own en-
deavours, go to your ministers, if they be faithful
and experienced men, and desire their assistance.
The matter is great, let not bashfulness, nor care-
lessness hinder you. They are set over you, to ad-
vise you, for the saving of your soul, as physicians
advise you for the curing of your bodies. It undoes
many thousands that they think they are in the way
to salvation, when they are not; and think that they
are converted when it is no such thing. And then
when we call to them daily to turn, they go away as
they came; and think that this concerns not them;
for they are turned already, and hope they shall do
well enough in the way that they are in, at least, it'
they pick the fairest path, and avoid some of the foul-
est steps, when, alas! all this while they live but
to the world and flesh, and are strangers to God
and eternal life; and are quite out of the way to
heaven. And all this because we cannot persuade
them to a few serious thoughts of their condition,
and to spend a few hours in the examining of their
states. Are there not many sell -deceivers who hear
me this day, that never bestowed one hour, or

THE UNCONVERTED. 75

quarter of an hour, in all their lives, to exam-
ine their souls, and try whether they are truly
converted or not? O merciful God, that will care
for such wretches that care no more for themselves,
and that will do so much to save them from hell,
and help them to heaven, who will do so little for it
themselves ! If all that are in the way to hell, and
in the state of damnation, did but know it, they
eta rat not cgntinue in it. The greatest hope that the
devil hath of bringing you to damnation without a
rescue, is by keeping you blindfold, and ignorant of
your state, and making you believe that you may do
well enough in the way that you are in. If you knew
that you were out of the way to heaven, and were
lost for ever if you should die as you are; durst you
sleep another night in the state that you are in?
Durst you live another day in it? Could you heart-
ily laugh, or be merry in such a state? What ! And
m >t know but you may be snatched away to hell in
an hour? Sure it would constrain you to forsake
your former company and courses, and to betake
yourselves to the ways of holiness, and the commu-
nion of saints. Sure it would drive you to cry to
God for a new heart, and to seek help of those that
are fit to counsel you. There are none of you that
cares not for being damned. Well, then, I beseech
you presently make inquiry into your hearts, and
give them no rest till you find out your condition,
that if it be good, you may rejoice in it, and go on;
and if it be bad, you may presently look about you
for recovery, as men that believe they must turn or
die. What say you, sirs, will you resolve and prom-
o be at thus much labour for your own souls?
Will you fall upon this self-examination when you
come home? Is my request unreasonable? Your
consciences know it is not. Resolve on it then, before
you stir; knowing how much it concerneth your souls.
I beseech you, for the sake of that God that doth
command you, at whose bar you will all shortly ap-
pear, that you do not deny me this reasonable re-

76

A CALL TO

quest. For the sake of those souls that must turn
or die, I beseech you deny me not; but make it
your business to understand your own conditions,
and build upon sure ground, and know whether you
are converted or not; and venture not your souls
on negligent security.

But perhaps you will say, e What if we should
find ourselves yet unconverted, what shall we do
then? ' This question leads me to my second Doc-
trine; which will do much to the answering of it, to
which I now proceed.

Doctrine 2. It is the promise of God, that the
wicked shall live, if they will but turn, unfeignedly
and thoroughly turn.

The Lord here professeth that this is what he
takes pleasure in, that the wicked turn and live.
Heaven is made as sure to the converted, as hell is
to the unconverted. Turn and live, is as certain a
truth as Turn or die. God was not bound to provide
us a Saviour, nor open to us a door of hope, nor call
us to repent and turn, when once we had cast our-
selves away by sin. But he hath freely done it to
magnify his mercy. Sinners, there are none of you
shall have cause to go home, and say I preach des-
peration to you. Do we use to shut the door of
mercy against you? O that you would not shut it
up against yourselves ! Do we use to tell you that
God will have no mercy on you, though you turn
and be sanctified? When did you ever hear a
preacher say such a word? You that cavil at the
preachers of the gospel, for desiring to keep you out
of hell, and say, that they preach desperation; tell
me if you can, when did you ever hear any sober
man say, that there is no hope for you, though you
repent, and be converted? No, it is the direct con-
trary that we daily proclaim from the Lord; and
whoever is born again, and by faith and repentance
dotli become a new creature, shall certainly be sav-

THE UNCONVERTED. 77

ed; and so far are we from persuading you to despair
of this, that we persuade you not to make any doubt
of it. It is life, not death, that is the first part of
our message to you; our commission is to offer sal-
vation, certain salvation; a speedy, glorious, ever-
lasting salvation, to every one of you; to the poorest
beggar as well as the greatest lord ; to the worst of
you, even to drunkards, swearers, worldlings, thieves,
yea, to the despisers, and reproachers of the holy
way of salvation. We are commanded by the Lord
our Master, to offer you a pardon for all that is past,
if you will but now at last return and live; we are
commanded to beseech and entreat you to accept
the offer, and return; to tell you what preparation is
made by Christ; what mercy stays for you; what
patience waiteth for you; what thoughts of kindness
God hath towards you; and how happy, how cer-
tainly and unspeakably happy you may be if you
will. We have indeed also a message of wrath and
death, yea, of a twofold wrath and death; but neither
of them is our principal message. We must tell you
of the wrath that is on you already, and the death
that you are born under, for the breach of the law
of works; but this is but to show you the need of
mercy, and to provoke you to esteem the grace of
the Redeemer. And we tell you nothing but the
truth, which you must know; for who will seek for
physic that knows not that he is sick? Our telling
you of your misery, is not that which makes you
miserable, but driveth you out to seek for mercy.
It is you that have brought this death upon your-
selves. We tell you also of another death, even
remediless, and much greater torment, that will fall
on those that will not be converted. But as this is
true, and must be told you, so it is but the last
and saddest part of our message. We are first to
offer you mercy, if you will turn; and it is only those
that will not turn, nor hear the voice of mercy, to
whom we must foretell damnation. Will you but
cast away your transgressions, delay no longer, but

78 A CALL TO

come away at the call of Christ, and be converted,
and become new creatures, and we have not a word
of damning wrath, or death to speak against you.
1 do here, in the name of the Lord of Liie, proclaim
to you all that hear me this day, to the worst of you,
to the greatest, to the oldest sinner, that you may
have mercy and salvation, if you will but turn.
There is mercy in God, there is sufficiency in the
satisfaction of Christ, the promise is free, and full,
and universal; you may have life, if you will but
turn. But then, as you love your souls, remember
what turning it is that the Scripture speaks of. It
is not to mend the old house, but to pull down all,
and build anew on Christ, the Rock, and sure foun-
dation. It is not to mend somewhat in a carnal
course of life, but to mortify the flesh, and live after
the Spirit. It is not to serve the flesh and the world,
in a more reformed way, without any scandalous
disgraceful sins, and with a certain kind of religious-
ness; but it is to change your master, and your
works, and end ; and to set your face the. contrary
way, and do all for the life that you never saw, and
dedicate yourselves, and all you have to God. This
is the change that must be made, if you will live.

Yourselves are witnesses now, that it is salvation,
and not damnation, that is the great doctrine I preach
to you, and the first part of my message to you.
Accept of this, and we shall go no further with you :
for we would not so much as affright, or trouble
you with the name of damnation, without necessity.

But if you will not be saved, there is no remedy,
but damnation must take place, for there is no mid-
dle place between the two; you must have either lile
or death.

And we are not only to offer you life, but to show
you the grounds on which we do it, and call you to
believe that God doth mean, indeed, as he speaks;
that the promise is true, and extendeth conditionally
to you, as well as others; and that heaven is no fan-
cy, but a true felicity.

THE UNCONVERTED. 79

If you ask, Where is your commission for this of-
fer? Among a hundred texts of scripture, I will
show it to you in these few :

First, You see it here in my text, and the follow-
ing verses, and in the 18th of Ezekiel, as plain as can
be spoken; and in 2 Cor. v. 17 — 21. you have the
very sum of our commission; "If any man be in
Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed
away; behold, all things are become new. And all
things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself
by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of
reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ recon-
ciling the world unto himself, not imputing their
trespasses to them, and hath committed unto us the
word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassa-
dors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by
us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled
unto God. For he hath made him to be sin for
us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the
righteousness of God in him." So Mark xvi. 15,
16. " Go ye into all the world, and preach the gos-
pel to every creature. He that believeth, (that is
with such a converting faith as is expressed) and is
baptized, shall be saved; and he that believeth not,
shall be damned." And Luke xxiv. 46, 47. "Thus
it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead
the third day: and that repentance (which is conver-
sion) and remission of sins should be preached in his
name among all nations." And, Acts, v. 30, 31.
"The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye
slew, and hanged on a tree: him hath God exalted
with his right hand, to be a Prince and a Saviour, to
give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins."
And Acts xiii. 3S, 39. " Be it known unto you, there-
fore, men and brethren, that through this man is
preached unto you the forgiveness of sins; and by
him all that believe are justified from all things, from
which ye could not be justified by the law of Mo-
ses." And lest you think this offer is restrained to
the Jews, see Gal. vi, 15. " For in Christ Jesus, nei-

80 A CALL TO

ther circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircum-
cision, but a new creature." And Luke xiv. 17.
" Come, for all things are now ready."

You see by this time that we are commanded to
offer life to you all, and to tell you from God, That
if you will turn, you may live.

Here you may safely trust your souls; for the love
of God is the fountain of this offer, (John iii. 16,) and
the blood of the Son of God hath purchased it; the
faithfulness and truth of God is engaged to make the
promise good; miracles oft sealed the truth of it;
preachers are sent through the world to proclaim it;
the sacraments are instituted and used for the solemn
delivery of the mercy offered to them that will ac-
cept it; and the Spirit doth open the heart to enter-
tain it, and is itself the earnest of the full possession.
So that the truth of it is past controversy, that the
worst of you all, and every one of you, if you will
but be converted, may be saved.

Indeed, if you will needs believe that you shall be
saved without conversion, then you believe a false-
hood; and if I should preach that to you, I should
preach a lie. This were not to believe God, but the
devil and your own deceitful hearts. God hath his
promise of* life, and the devil hath his promise of life.
God's promise is, Return and live. The devil's
promise is, You shall live whether you turn or not.
The words of God are, as I have showed you, " Ex-
cept ye be converted and become as little children,
ye cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven."
Matt, xviii. 8. "Except a man be bom again, he
cannot enter into the kingdom of God." .John iii.
3, 5. "Without holiness none shall see God."
Heb. xii. 14. The devil's word, " You may be sa-
ved without being born again and converted; you
may do well enough without being holy, God doth
but frighten you; he is more merciful than to do as
he saith, he will be better to you than his word."
And, alas, the greatest part of the world believe
this word of the devil, before \hv word of God; just

THE UNCONVERTED. 81

as our sin and misery came into the world. God
said to our first parents, * If ye eat ye shall die;"
and the devil contradicted him, and said, " Ye shall
not die:" and the woman believed the devil before
God. So now the Lord saith, Turn or die: and the
devil saith, You shall not die, if you do but cry for
God's mercy at last, and give over the acts of sin
when you can practise it no longer. And this is the
word that the world believes. O heinous wicked-
ness, to believe the devil before God.

And yet that is not the worst; but blasphemously
they call this a believing and trusting in God, when
they put him in the shape of Satan, who was a liar
from the beginning; and when they believe that the
word of God is a lie, they call this a trusting God and
say they believe in him, and trust in him for salva-
tion. Where did ever God say, that the unregene-
rate, unconverted, unsanctified, shall be saved ? Show
me such a word in Scripture. I challenge you if you
can. Why this is the devil's word, and to believe it
is to believe the devil, and the sin that is commonly
called presumption; and do you call this a believing
and trusting in God? There is enough in the word
of God to comfort and strengthen the heart of the
sanctified; but not a word to strengthen the hands of
wickedness, nor to give men the least hope of being
saved, though they be never sanctified.

But if you will turn, and come into the way of
mercy, the mercy of the Lord is ready to entertain
you. Then trust God for salvation, boldly and con-
fidently; for he is engaged by his word to save you.
He will be a father to none but his children; and he
will save none but those that forsake the world, the
devil, and the flesh, and come into his family to be
members of his Son, and have communion with his
saints. But if they will not come in, it is the fault
of themselves: his doors are open; he keeps none
back; he never sent such a message as this to any
of you, 'It is now too late; I will not receive thee,
though thou be converted.5 He might have don<* so

82 A CALL TO

and done you no wrong; but he did not; lie doth not
to this day. He is still ready to receive you, if you
were but ready unfeigned ly, and with all your hearts
to turn. And the fulness of this truth will yet more
appear in the two following doctrines, which I shall
therefore next proceed to, before I make any further
application of this.

Doctrine S. God taketh pleasure in men's con-
version and salvation, but not in their death or
damnation. He had rather they would turn and
live, than go on and die.

I shall first teach you how to understand this,
and then clear up the truth of it to you.

And for the first you must observe these following
things: 1. A simple willingness or complacency is
the first act of the will following the single apprehen-
sion of the understanding, before it proceedeth to
compare things together; but the choosing act of the
will is a following act, and supposeth the comparing
practical act of the understanding; and these two acts
may often be carried to contrary objects, without
any fault at all in the person.

2. An unfeigned willingness may have divers de-
grees; some things I am so far willing of as that I
will do all that lieth in my power to accomplish it,
and some things I am truly willing another should
do, when yet I will not do all that I am ever able to
procure it, having many reasons to dissuade me
therefrom, though yet I will do all that belongs to
me to do.

3. The will of a ruler, as such, is manifested in
making and executing laws: but the will of man hi
his simple natural capacity, or as absolute lord of his
own, is manifested in desiring or resolving of events.

4. A ruler's will, as lawgiver, is lirst and princi-
pally that his laws be obeyed, and not at all that the
penalty be executed on any, but only on supposition
that they will not obey his laws; but a ruler's will,

THE UNCONVERTED. 85

as judge, supposeth the law already either kept or
broken, and therefore he resolveth our reward or
punishment accordingly.

Having given you those necessary distinctions, I
shall next apply them to the case in hand, in these
following propositions: —

1 . It is in the glass of the word and creatures, that
in this life we must know God; and so according to
the nature of man we ascribe to him understanding
and will, removing all the imperfections that we can,
because we are capable of no higher positive concep-
tions of him.

2. And on the same grounds we do, with the
scripture, distinguish between the acts of God's will,
as diversified from the respects or the objects, though
as to God's essence they are all one.

3. And the bolder, because that when we speak
of Christ, we have the more ground for it from his
human nature.

4. And thus we say, that the simple complacency,
will, or love of God, is to all that is naturally or
morally good, according to the nature and degree of
its goodness, and so he hath pleasure in the conver-
sion and salvation of all, which yet will never come
to pass.

5. And God, as Ruler and Lawgiver of the
world, had so far a practical will for their salvation,
as to make them a free deed of gift of Christ and life,
and an act of oblivion for all their sins, so be if they
will not unthankfully reject it, and to command his
messengers to offer this gift to all the world, and per-
suade them to accept it. And so he doth all that,
as Lawgiver or Promiser, belongs to him to do for
their salvation.

6. But yet he resolveth, as Lawgiver, that they
that will not turn shall die; and as Judge, when their
day of grace is past he will execute that decree.

7. So that he thus unfeignedly willeth the conver-
sion of those that never will be converted, but not
as absolute Lord with the fullest efficacious resolu-

84 A CALL TO

tion, nor as a thing which he resolveth shall un-
doubtedly come to pass, or would engage all his pow-
er to accomplish. It is in the power of a prince to
set a guard upon a murderer, to see that he shall not
murder, and be hanged; but if, upon good reason,
he forbear this, and do but send to his subjects to
warn and entreat them not to be murderers, I hope
he may well say that he would not have them mur-
der and be hanged; he takes no pleasure in it, but
rather that they forbear and live, and if he do more
for some upon some special reason, he is not bound
to do so by all. The king may well say to all mur-
derers and felons in the land, c I have no pleasure in
your death, but rather that you would obey my
laws and live; but if you will not, I am resolved, for
all this, that you shall die.' The judge may truly
say to a thief, or the murderer, ( Alas, I have no de-
light in thy death; I had rather thou hadst kept the
law and saved thy life; but seeing thou hast not, I
must condemn thee, or else I should be unjust.' So,
though God have no pleasure in your damnation,
and therefore calls upon you to return and live, yet
he hath pleasure in the demonstration of his own
justice, and the executing his laws, and therefore he
is, for all this, fully resolved, that if you will not be
converted, you shall be condemned. If God was so
much against the death of the wicked, as that he
were resolved to do all that he can to hinder it, then
no man shall be condemned; whereas Christ telleth
you, that few will be saved. But so far God is
against your damnation, as that he will teach you,
and warn you, and set before you life and death,
and offer you your choice, and command his minis-
ters to entreat you not to destroy yourselves, bu.
accept his mercy, and so to leave you without excuse.
But if this will not do, and if still you be unconvert-
ed, he professeth to you, he is resolved on your dam-
nation, and hath commanded us to say to you in his
name, verse 8, " O wicked man thou shalt surely
die!" And Christ hath little less than sworn it,

THE UNCONVERTED. 85

over and over, with a "verily, verily, except ye be
converted, and born again, ye cannot enter into the
kingdom of heaven.5' Matt, xviii. 8. John iii. 3.
Mark that he saith " you cannot. " It is in vain to
hope for it, and in vain to dream that God is willing
for it; for it is a thing that cannot be.

In a word, you see then the meaning of the text,
that God, the great Lawgiver of the world, doth
take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but
rather that they turn and live; though yet he be re-
solved that none shall live but those that turn; and
as a Judge even delighteth in justice, and manifesting
his hatred of sin, though not in their misery, which
they have brought upon themselves, in itself consid-
ered.

And for the proofs of the point, I shall be very
brief in them, because I suppose you easily believe
it already.

1. The very gracious nature of God proclaimed:
" And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaim-
ed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gra-
cious, long-sufiering, and abundant in goodness and
truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniqui-
ty, and transgression, and sin, and that will by no
means clear the guilty; " (Exod. xxiv. 6. and xxvi.
6.) and frequently elsewhere, may assure you of this,
That he hath no pleasure in your death.

2. If God had more pleasure in thy death, than in
thy conversion and life, he would not have so fre-
quently commanded thee in his word, to turn; he
would not have made thee such promises of life, if
thou wilt but turn; he would not have persuaded
thee to it by so many reasons. The tenor of his
gospel proveth the point.

3. And his commission that he hath given to the
ministers of the gospel, doth fully prove it. If God
had taken more pleasure in thy damnation, than in
thy conversion and salvation, he would never have
charged us to offer you mercy, and to teach you the
way of life, both publicly and privately: and to en-

86 A CALL TO

treat and beseech you to turn and live; to acquaint
yon with your sins, and foretell you of your danger;
and to do all that possibly we can for your conver-
sion, and to continue patiently so doing, though you
should hate or abuse us for our pains. Would God
have done this, and appointed his ordinances for
your good, if he had taken pleasure in your death?
4. It is proved also by the course of his provi-
dence. If God had rather you were damned than
converted and saved, he would not second his word
with his works, and entice you by his daily kindness
to himself, and give you all the mercies of this life,
which are his means " to lead you to repentance,"
(Rom. ii. 4.) and. bring you so often under his rod
to lead you to your senses; he would not set so many
examples before your eyes, no, nor wait on you so
patiently as he does from day to day, and year to
year. These are not signs of one that taketh pleas-
ure in your death. If this had been his delight, how
easily could he have had thee long ago in hell ? How
oft, before this, could he have catched thee away in
the midst of thy sins with a curse, or oath, or lie in
thy mouth, in thy ignorance, and pride, and sensu-
ality ? When thou wert last in thy drunkenness, or
last deriding the ways of God, how easily could he
have stopped thybieath, and tamed thee with plagues,
and made thee sober in another world ! Alas ! how
small a matter is it for the Almighty to rule the
tongue of the profanest railer, and tie the hands of
the most malicious persecutor, or calm the fury of
the bitterest of his enemies, and make them know
that they are but worms? W he should but frown
upon thee thou wouldst drop into thy grave. K he
gave commission to one of his angels to go and de-
stroy ten thousand sinners, how quickly would it be
done! how easily can he lay thee upon the bed of
languishing, and make thee lie roaring there in pain,
and make thee eat the wdtds of reproach which thou
hast spoken against his servants, his word, his wor-
ship, and his holy ways, and make thee send to beg

THE UNCONVERTED. 87

their prayers whom thou didst despise in thy pre-
sumption? How easily can he lay that flesh under
pains, and groans, and make it too weak to hold thy
soul, and make it more loathsome than the dung of
the earth? That flesh which now must have what
» it loves, and must not be displeased, though God be
displeased, and must be humoured in meat, and
drink, and clothes, whatever God say to the contra-
ry, how quickly would the frowns of God consume
it? When thou wast passionately defending thy
sin, and quarrelling with them that would have
drawn thee from it, and showing thy splSen against
the reprover, and pleading for the works of darkness;
how easily could God have snatched thee away in a
moment, and set thee before his dreadful Majesty,
where thou shouldst see ten thousand times ten
thousand glorious angels waiting on his throne, and
have called thee there to plead thy cause, and asked
thee c What hast thou now to say against thy Crea-
tor, his truth, his servants, or his holy ways ? Now
plead thy cause, and make the best of it thou canst.
Now what canst thou say in excuse of thy sins?
Now give account of thy worldliness and fleshly life,
of thy time, of all the mercies thou hast had.5 O
how thy stubborn heart would have melted, and thy
proud looks be taken down, and thy countenance be
appalled, and thy stout words turned into speechless
silence, or dreadful cries, if God had but set thee
thus at his bar, and pleaded his own cause with thee,
which thou hast here so maliciously pleaded against !
How easily can he at any time say to thy guilty
soul, Come away, and live in that flesh no more till
t^e resurrection, and it cannot resist ! A word of
his mouth would take off the poise of thy present
lite, and then all thy parts and powers would stand
still; and if he say unto thee, Live no longer, or, live
in hell, thou couldst not disobey.

But God hath yet done none of this, but hath pa-
tiently forborn thee, and mercifully upheld thee, and
given thee that breath, which thou didst breathe

88 A CALL TO

out against him, and given those mercies which thou
didst sacrifice to thy flesh, and afforded thee that
provision which thou spentest to satisfy thy greedy
throat: he gave thee every minute of that time
which thou didst waste in idleness, or drunkenness,
or worldliness; and doth not all his patience and mer-
cy show that he desired not thy damnation? Can
the candle burn without the oil? Can your houses
stand without the earth to bear them ? No more
can you live an hour without the support of God.
And why did he so long support thy life, but to
see when thou wouldst bethink thee of the folly of
thy ways, and return and live? Will any man pur-
posely put arms into his enemy's hands to resist him,
or hold a candle to a murderer that is killing his chil-
dren, or to an idle servant that plays or sleeps the
while? Surely it is to see whether thou wilt at last
return and live, that God hath so long waited on
thee.

5. It is further proved by the sufferings of his Son,
that God taketh no pleasure in the death of the
wicked. Would he have ransomed them from death
at so dear a rate? Would he have astonished angels
and men by his condescension? Would God have
dwelt in flesh, and have come in the form of a servant,
and have assumed humanity into one person with the
Godhead; and would Christ have lived a life of suf-
fering, and died a cursed death for sinners, if he had
rather taken pleasure in their death? Suppose you
saw him but so busy in preaching and healing of
them, as you find him in Mark iii. 21. or so long in
fasting, as in Matt. iv. or all night in prayer, as in
Luke vi. 12. or praying with the drops of blood
trickling from him instead of sweat, as Luke m
44. or suffering a cursed death upon the cross, and
pouring out his soul as a sacrifice lor our sins.
Would you have thought these the signs of one that
delighted in the death of the wicked?

And think not to extenuate it by saying, that it
was only for his elect: for it was thy sin, and the

THE UNCONVERTED. 89

sin of all the world, that lay upon our Redeemer;
and his sacrifice and satisfaction is sufficient for all,
and the fruits of it are offered to one as well as
another. But it is true, that it was never the intent
of his mind to pardon and save any that would not,
by faith and repentance, be converted. If you had
seen and heard him weeping and bemoaning the
state of disobedience in impenitent people: — Luke
xix. 41, 42. " And when he was come near, he be-
held the city, and wept over it, saying, if thou hadsit
known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the
things which belong unto thy peace ! but now they
are hid from thine eyes. " Or complaining of their
stubbornness, as Matt, xxiii. 37. " O Jerusalem,
Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered thy
children together, even as a hen gathereth her
chickens under her wings, and ye would not ! " Or
if you had seen and heard him on the cross, praying
for his persecutors — Father, forgive them, for they
know not what they do — would you have suspected
that he had delighted in the death of the wicked,
even of those that perish by their wilful unbelief?
When God hath so loved, (not only loved, but so
loved,) as to give his only begotten Son, that who-
soever beiieveth in him (by an effectual faith) should
not perish, but have everlasting life, I think he hath
hereby proved, against the malice of men and devils,
that he takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked,
but had rather that they wTould " turn and live."

6. Lastly, If all this will not yet satisfy you, take
his own word, that knoweth best his own mind, or at
least believe his oath: but this leads me to the fourth
doctrine.

Doctrine 4. The Lord hath confirmed to us by
his oath, that he hath no pleasure in the death of
the wicked, but rather that he turn and live; that
he may leave man no pretence to question the
truth of it.

90 A CALL TO

H you dare question his word, I hope you dare
not question his oath. As Christ hath solemnly
protested that the unregenerate and unconverted
cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven; (Matt,
xviii. 3. John iii. 3;) so God hath sworn that his
pleasure is not in their death, but in their conversion
and life. And as the Apostle saith, (Heb. iv. 1 3—18,)
Because he can swear by no greater, he swear by
himself. ( For men verily swear by the greater : and
an oath for confirmation is to them an end of strife.
Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto
the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel,
confirmed it by an oath; that by two immutable
things in which it was impossible for God to lie, we
might have strong consolation, who have fled for
refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us : which
hope we have- as an anchor of the soul both sure and
steadfast.' If there be any man that cannot recon-
cile this truth with the doctrine of predestination,
or the actual damnation of the wicked, that is his
own ignorance; he hath no pretence left to question
or deny therefore the truth of the point in hand ; for
this is confirmed by the oath of God, and therefore
must not be distorted, to reduce it to other points :
but doubtful points must rather be reduced to it,
and certain truths must be believed to agree with it,
though our shallow minds hardly discern the agree-
ment.

Use. — I do now entreat thee, if thou be an uncon-
verted sinner that hearest these words, that thou
wouldst po?jder a little upon the forementioned doc-
trines, and bethink thyself awhile, who it is that
takes pleas h re in thy sin and damnation. Certainly,
it is not God: he hath sworn for his part that he
takes no pleasure in it. And I know it is not the
pleasing of him that you intend. You dare not say
that you drink, and swear, and neglect holy duties,
and quench the motions of the Spirit to please God.
That were as if you should reproach the prince, and

THE UNCONVERTED. 91

break his laws, and seek his death, and say, you did
all this to please him.

Who is it then that takes pleasure in your sin and
death? Not any that bear the image of God, for
they must be like minded to him. God knows, it is
small pleasure to your faithful teachers to see you
serve your deadly enemy, and madly venture your
eternal state, and wilfully run into the flames of hell.
It is small pleasure to them to see upon your souls (in
the sad effects) such biindness, and hard-heartedness,
and carelessness, and presumption; such wilfulness
in evil, and such unteachableness and stiffness against
the ways of life and peace; they know these are
marks of death, and of the wrath of God, and they
know, from the word of God, what is like to be the
end of them, and therefore it is no more pleasure to
them, than to a tender physician to see the plague-
marks broke out upon his patient. Alas, to foresee
your everlasting torments, and know not how to
prevent them ! To see how near you are to hell,
and we cannot make you believe it and consider it.
To see how easily, how certainly you might escape,
if we knew but how to make you willing. How fair
you are for everlasting salvation, if you would turn
and do your best, and make it the care and business
of your lives! but you will not do it; if our lives lay
on it, we cannot persuade you to it. We study day
and night what to say to you, that may convince and
persuade you, and yet it is undone: we lay before
you the word of God, and show you the very chap-
ter and verse where it is written, that you cannot be
saved except you be converted; and yet we leave the
most of you as we find you. We hope you will be-
lieve the word of God, though you believe not us,
and regard it when we show you the plain scripture
for it; but we hope in vain, and labour in vain as to
any saving change upon your hearts ! And do you
think that this is a pleasant thing to us ? Many a
time, in secret prayer, we are fain to complain to God
with sad hearts, ( Alas, Lord, we have spoken to

92 A CALL TO

them in thy name, but they little regard us; we have
told them what thou bidst us tell them concerning
the danger of an unconverted state, but they do not
believe us : we have told them that thou hast pro-
tested that there is no peace to the wicked. ' Isa.
xlviii. 2, and lvii. 21. c But the worst of them all will
scarcely believe that they are wicked; we have
showed them thy word, where thou hast said, that
if they live after the flesh they shall die.' Rom. viii.
13. 'But they say, they will believe in thee, when
they will not believe thee, and that they will trust in
thee, when they give no credit to thy word; and
when they hope that the threatenings of thy word
are false, they will yet call this a hoping in God; and
though we show them where thou hast said, that
when a wicked man dieth, all his hopes perish, yet
cannot we persuade them from their deceitful hopes.5
Prov. xi. 7. f We tell them what a base, unprofita-
ble thing sin is; but they love it, and therefore will
not leave it. We tell them how dear they buy this
pleasure, and what they must pay for it in everlast-
ing torment; and they bless themselves, and will not
believe it, but will do as the most do; and because
God is merciful, they will not believe him, but will
venture their souls, come on it what will. We tell
them how ready the Lord is to receive them, and
this doth but make them delay their repentance and
be bolder in their sin. Some of them say they pur-
pose to repent, but they are still the same; and some
say they do repent already, while yet they are not
converted from their sins. We exhort them, we
entreat them, we offer them our help, but we cannot
prevail with them; but they that were drunkards,
are drunkards still; and they that were voluptuous
flesh-pleasing wretches, are such still; and they that
were worldlings, are worldlings still; and they that
were ignorant, and proud, and self-conceited, are so
still. Few of them will see and confess their sin,
and fewer will forsake it, but comfort themselves
thaf. ail men are sinners, as if there were no differ-

^v

of THK

THE UNCONVER!

ence between a converted sinner and an unconverted.
Some of them will not come near us, When we are
willing to instruct them, but think they know enough
already, and need not our instruction; and some of
them will give us the hearing, and do what they list;
and most of them are like dead men that cannot
feel; so that when we tell them of the matters of
everlasting consequence, we cannot get a word of it
to their hearts. If we do not obey them, and hu-
mour them in baptizing the children of the most ob-
stinately wicked, and giving them the Lord's Supper,
and doing all that they would have us, though never
so much against the word of God, they will hate us,
and rail at us; but if we beseech them to confess,
and forsake their sins, and save their souls, they will
not do it. We tell them, if they will but turn, we
will deny them none of the ordinances of God, neith-
er baptism to their children, nor the Lord's Supper
to themselves, but they will not hear us; they would
have us disobey God and damn our own souls, to
please them; and yet they will not turn and save
their own souls to please God. They are wiser in
their own eyes than all their teachers; they rage and
are confident in their own way, and if we were never
so fain, we cannot change them. Lord, this is the
case of our miserable neighbours, and we cannot help
it; we see them ready to drop into hell, and we can-
not help it; we know if they would unfeignedly turn,
they might be saved, but we cannot persuade them;
if we would beg it of them on our knees, we cannot
persuade them to it; if we would beg it of them with
tears, we cannot persuade them; and what more can
we do ?

These are the secret complaints and moans that
many a poor minister is fain to make. And do you
think that he hath any pleasure in this ? Is it a plea-
sure to him to see you go on in sin, and cannot stop
you? to see you so miserable, and cannot so much
as make you sensible of it? to see you merry, when
you are not sure to be an hour out of hell? to think

94

what you must for ever suffer, because you will not
turn ? and to think what an everlasting life of glory
you wilfully despise and cast away? What sadder
thing can you bring to their hearts, and how can you
devise to grieve them more?

Who is it then that you please by your sin and
death? It is none of your understanding godly
friends. Alas, it is the grief of their souls to see
your misery, and they lament you many a time when
you give them little thanks for it, and when you
have not hearts to lament yourselves.

Who is it then that takes pleasure in your sin ? It
is none but three great enemies of God, whom you
renounced in your baptism, and now are turned
falsely to serve.

1. The devil indeed takes pleasure in your sin and
death: for this is the very end of all his temptations;
f ?r this he watches night and day; you cannot devise
to please him better than to go on in sin. How glad
is he when he sees thee going into the alehouse, or
other sin, and when he heareth thee curse, or swear,
or rail J How glad is he when he heareth thee re-
vile the minister that would draw thee from thy sin,
and help to save thee? These are his delight.

2. The wicked are also delighted in it; for it is
agreeable to their nature.

3. But I know, for all this, that it is not the pleas-
ing of the devil, that you intend, even when you
please him; but it is your own flesh, the greatest and
most dangerous enemy, that you intend to please.
It is the flesh that would be pampered, that would
be pleased in meat, and drink, and clothing; that
would be pleased in your company, and pleased in
applause and credit with the world, and pleased in
sports, and lusts, and idleness; this is the gulf that
devoureth all. This is the very god that you serve,
for the scripture saith of such, that their bellies are
their gods. Phil. iii. 19. But I beseech you stay
a little and consider the business.

1. Question. Should your flesh be pleased before

THE UNCONVERTED. 95

your Maker? Will you displease the Lord, and dis-
please your teacher, and your godly friends, and all to
please your brutish appetites, or sensual desires?
Is not God worthy to be the ruler of your flesh? If
he shall not rule it, he will not save it; you cannot
in reason expect that he should.

2. Question. Your flesh is pleased with your sin;
but is your conscience pleased ? Doth not it grudge
within you, and tell you sometimes that all is not
well, and that your case is not so safe as you make it
to be; and should not your souls and consciences be
pleased before your corruptible flesh?

3. Question. But is not your flesh preparing for
its own displeasure also? It loves the bait, but doth
it love the hook ? It loves the strong drink and sweet
morsels; it loves its ease, and sports and merriment:
it loves to be rich, and well spoken of by men, and
to be somebody in the world; but doth it love the
curse of God? Doth it love to stand trembling be-
fore his bar, and to be judged to everlasting fire?
Doth it love to be tormented with the devils for
ever? Take all together; for there is no separating
sin, and hell, but only by faith and true conversion;
if you will keep one, you must have the other. If
death and hell be pleasant to thee, no wonder then
if you go on in sin: but if they be not (as I am sure
they are not), then what if sin were never so pleas-
ant, is it worth the loss of life eternal? Is a little
drink, or meat, or ease; is the good word of sinners,
is the riches of this world to be valued above the joys
of heaven? Or are they worth the sufferings of
eternal fire? Sirs, these questions should be consid-
ered before you go any further, by every man that
hath reason to consider, and that believes he hath a
soul to save or lose.

Well, the Lord here sweareth that he hath no
pleasure in your death, but rather that you would
turn and live; if yet you will go on and die rather
than turn, remember it was not to please God that
you did it: it was to please the world, and to please

96 A CALL TO

yourselves. And if men will damn themselves to
please themselves, and run into endless torments for
delight, and have not the wit, the hearts, the grace, to
.learken to God or man that would reclaim them,
what remedy but they must take what they get by
it, and repent it in another manner, when it is too
late? Before I proceed any further in the applica-
tion, I shall come to the next doctrine, which gives
me a fuller ground for it.

Doctrine 5. So earnest is God for the conversion
of sinners, that he doubleth his commands and
exhortations, with vehemency — Turn ye, turn
ye, why will you die?

This doctrine is the application of the former, as
by a use of exhortation, and accordingly I shall han-
dle it. Is there ever an unconverted sinner that
heareth these vehement words of God? Is there
ever a man or woman in this assembly that is yet
a stranger to the renewing sanctifying work of the
Holy Ghost? It is a happy assembly, if it be not so
with the most. Hearken then to the voice of your
Maker, and turn to him by Christ without delay.
Would you know the will of God? Why this is his
will, that you presently turn. Shall the living God
send so earnest a message to his creatures, and
should they not obey? 2. Hearken then, all you
that live alter the flesh: the Lord that gave thee thy
breath and being, hath sent a message to thee from
heaven; and this is his message, Turn ye, turn ye,
why will ye die? — He that hath ears to hear, let him
hear. Shall the voice of the eternal Majesty be neg-
lected? If he do but terribly thunder, thou art
afraid. O but this voice doth more nearly concern
thee. If he did but tell thee thou shalt die to-mor-
row, thou wouldst not make light of it. O but this
word concerneth thy life or death everlasting. It is
both a command and an exhortation. As if he hud
said to thee, " I charge thee upon the allegiance that

THE UNCONVERTED. 97

thou owest to me thy Creator and Redeemer, that
thou renounce the flesh, the world, and the devil,
and turn to me that thou mayst live. I condescend
to entreat thee, as thou either lovest or fearest him
that made thee; as thou lovest thine own life, even
thine everlasting life, turn and live: as ever thou
wouldst escape eternal misery, turn, turn, for why
wilt thou die ? " And is there a heart in man, in a
reasonable creature, that can once refuse such a
message, such a command, such an exhortation as
this ? O what a thing, then, is the heart of man !

Hearken, then, all that love yourselves, and all
that regard your own salvation; here is the most
joyful message that was ever sent to the ears of man,
" Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die? " You are not
yet shut up under desperation. Here is mercy offer-
ed you; turn, and you shall have it. O sirs! with
what glad and joyful hearts should you receive these
tidings ! I know this is not the first time that you
have heard it; but how have you regarded it, or
how do you regard it now ? Hear, all you ignorant,
careless sinners, the word of the Lord. Hear, all
you worldlings, you sensual flesh-pleasers; you glut-
tons, and drunkards, and whoremongers, and swear-
ers; you railers and backbiters, slanderers and liars
— Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die?

Hear, all you cold and outside professors, and all
that are strangers to the life of Christ, and never knew
the power of his cross and resurrection, and never
felt your hearts warmed with his love, and live not
on him as the strength of your souls — " Turn ye,
turn ye, why will ye die?"

Hear, all that are void of the love of God, whose
hearts are not toward him, nor taken up with the
hopes of glory, but set more by your earthly pros-
perity and delights than by the joys of heaven; all
you that are religious but a little by the by, and give
God no more than your flesh can spare; that have
not denied your carnal selves, and forsaken all that
you have for Christ, in the estimation and grounded
9

9*

A CALL TO

resolution of your souls, but have some one thing in
the world so dear to you, that you cannot spare it
for Christ, if he required it, but will rather venture
on his displeasure than forsake it — " Turn ye, turn
ye, why will ye die?

If you never heard it, or observed it before, re-
member that you were told from the word of God
this day, that if you will but turn, you may live;
and if you will not turn, you shall surely die.

What now will you do, sirs ? What is your reso-
lution? Will you turn, or will you not? Halt not
any longer between two opinions. If the Lord be
God, follow him; if your flesh be God, then serve it
still. If heaven be better than earth and fleshly
pleasures, come away, then, and seek a better
country, and lay up your treasure where rust and
moths do not corrupt, and thieves cannot break
through and steal; and be awakened at last, with all
your might to seek the kingdom that cannot be mov-
ed, Heb. xii. 28. and to employ your lives on a high-
er design, and turn the stream of your cares, and la-
bours, another way than formerly you have done.
But if earth be better than heaven, or will do more
for you, or last you longer, then keep it, and make
your best of it, and follow it still. Sirs, are you re-
solved what to do? If you be not, I will set a few
more moving considerations before you, to see if
reason will make you resolve.

Consider, first, what preparations mercy hath
made for your salvation; and what pity it is, that
any man should be damned after all this. The
time was, when the flaming sword was in the way,
and the curse of God's law would have kept thee
back, if thou hadst been never so willing to turn to
God. The time was, when thyself, and all the
friends that thou hast in the world, could never have
produced thee the pardon of thy sins past, though
thou hadst never so much lamented and reformed
them. But Christ hath removed this impediment,
by the ransom of his blood. The time was, that

THE UNCONVERTED. 99

God was wholly unreconciled, as being not satisfied
for the violation of his law; but now he is so far
satisfied and reconciled, as that he hath made thee
a free act of oblivion, and a free deed of gift of
Christ and life, and offereth it to thee, and entreat-
eth thee to accept it; and it may be thine, if thou
wilt. For, " he was in Christ reconciling the world
to himself, and hath committed to us the word of
reconciliation." 2 Cor. v. 18, 19. Sinners, we too
are commanded to deliver this message to you all,
as from the Lord: " Come, for all things are ready."
Luke xiv. 17. Are all things ready, and are you
unready ? God is ready to entertain you, and par-
don all that you have done against him, if you will
but come. As long as you have sinned, as wilfully
as you have sinned, he is ready to cast all behind
his back, if you will but come. Though you have
been prodigals, and run away from God, and have
staid so long, he is ready even to meet you, and em-
brace you in his arms, and rejoice in your conversion,
if you will but turn. Even the worldlings and drunk-
ards will find God ready to bid them welcome, if they
will but come. Doth not this turn thy heart within
thee? O sinner ! if thou hast a heart of flesh, and
not of stone in thee, methinks this should melt it.
Shall the dreadful infinite Majesty of heaven even
wait for thy returning, and be ready to receive
thee, who hast abused him, and forgotten him so
long ? Shall he delight in thy conversion, that might
at any time glorify his justice in thy damnation ? and
yet doth it not melt thy heart within thee, and art
thou not yet ready to come in? Hast thou not as
much reason to be ready to come, as God hath to
invite thee and bid thee welcome ?

But that is not all: Christ bath done his part on
the cross, and made such way for thee to the Father,
that, on his account, thou mayst be welcome, if thou
wilt come. And yet art thou not ready?

A pardon is already expressly granted, and offered
thee in the Gospel. And yet art thou not ready?

100 A CALL TO

The ministers of the Gospel are ready to assist
thee, to instruct thee, and pronounce the absolving
words of peace to thy soul; they are ready to pray
for thee, and to seal up thy pardon by the adminis-
tration of the holy sacrament. And yet art thou not
ready?

All that fear God about thee, are ready to rejoice
in thy conversion, and to receive thee into the com-
munion of saints, and to give thee the right hand of
fellowship, yea, though thou hadst been one that
had been cast out of their society: they dare not but
forgive where God forgiveth, when it is manifest to
them, by thy confession and amendment; they dare
not so much as reproach thee with thy former sins,
because they know that God will not upbraid thee
with them. If thou hadst been never so scandalous,
if thou wouldst but Jieartily be converted and come
in, they would not refuse thee, let the world say what
they would against it. And are all these ready to
receive thee, and yet art thou not ready to come in ?

Yea, heaven itself is ready: the Lord will receive
thee into the glory of his saints. Vile as thou hast
been, if thou wilt but be cleansed, thou mayst have
a place before his throne; his angels will be ready to
guard thy soul to the place of joy, if thou do but un-
feignedly come in. And is God ready, the sacrifice
of Christ ready, the promise ready, and pardon rea-
dy? are ministers ready, and the people of God ready,
and heaven itself ready, and angels ready? and all
these but waiting for thy conversion; and yet art
thou not ready? What! not ready to live, when thou
hast been dead so long? not ready to come to thy
right understanding, as the prodigal is said to " come
to himself," Luke xv. 17. when thou hast been beside
thyself so long? Not ready to be saved, when thou
art even ready to be condemned? Art thou not
ready to lay hold on Christ, that would deliver thee,
when thou art even ready to sink into damnation?
Art thou not ready to be drawn from hell, when thou
art even ready to be cast remediless into it? Alas,

THE UNCONVERTED. 101

man! dost thou know what thou doest? If thou die
unconverted, there is no doubt to be made of thy
damnation; and thou art not sure to live an hour.
And yet art thou not ready to turn, and to come in?
O miserable wretch ! Hast thou not served the flesh
and the devil long enough ? Yet hast thou not enough
of sin? Is it so good to thee, or so profitable for thee?
Dost thou know what it is, that thou wouldst yet
have more of it? Hast thou had so many calls, and
so many mercies, and so many warnings, and so ma-
ny examples ? Hast thou seen so many lai^ in the
grave, and yet art thou not ready to let go thy sins,
and come to Christ? What! after so many convic-
tions and pangs of conscience, after so many pur-
poses and promises, art thou not yet ready to turn
and live? O that thy eyes, thy heart, were opened
to know how fair an offer is now made to thee ! and
what a joyful message it is that we are sent on, to
bid thee come, for all things are ready !

II. Consider also, what calls thou hast to turn and
live. How many, how loud, how earnest, how
dreadful : and yet what encouraging, joyful calls !

For the principal inviter is God himself. He that
commandeth heaven and earth, commands thee to
turn, and that presently, without delay. He com
mands the sun to run its course, and to rise upon
thee every morning; and though it be so glorious an
orb, and many times bigger than all the earth, yet it
obeyeth him, and faileth not one minute of its ap-
pointed time. He commandeth all the planets, and
the orbs of heaven, and they obey. He command-
eth the sea to ebb and flow, and the whole creation to
keep its course, and all obey him : the angels of hea-
ven obey his will, when he sends them to minister to
such worms as we on earth, Heb. i. 14; and yet if
he command but a sinner to turn, he will not obey
him. He only thinks himself wiser than God, and
he cavils and pleads the cause of sin, and will not
obey. If the Lord Almighty say the word, the hea-
vens and all therein obey him : but if he call but a

102 A CALL TO

drunkard out of an alehouse, he will not obey: or if
he call a worldly fleshly sinner to deny himself, and
mortify the flesh, and set his heart upon a better in-
heritance, he will not obey.

If thou hadst any love in thee, thou wouldst know
the voice, and say, O this is my Father's call ! how
can I find in my heart to disobey? For the sheep of
Christ " know and hear his voice, and they follow
him, and he giveth them eternal life." John x. 4.
If thou hadst any spiritual life and sense in thee, at
least thou wouldst say, This call is the dreadful
voice of God, and who dare disobey? For saith the
prophet, (Amos hi. 8.) " The lion hath roared, who
will not fear?" God is not a man, that thou shouldst
dally and trifle with him. Remember what he said
to Paul at his conversion, " It is hard for thee to
kick against the pricks." Acts ix. 5. Wilt thou yet
go on and despise his word, and resist his Spirit,
and stop thine ear against his call? who is it that will
have the worst of this? Dost thou know whom thou
disobey est, and contendest with, and what thou art
doing? It were a far wiser, and easier task for thee
to contend with the thorns, and spurn them with
thy bare feet, and beat them with thv bare hands,
or put thine head into the burning fire. " Be not
deceived, God will not be mocked." Gal. vi. 7.
Whoever else be mocked, God will not: you had
better play with the fire in your thatch, than with
the fire of his burning wrath. " For our God is a
consuming fire." Heb. xii. 29. O how unmeet
a match art thou for God ! " It is a fearful thing to
fall into his hands." Heb. x. 31. And therefore
it is a fearful thing to contend with him, or resist
him. As you love your own souls, take heed what
you do: what will you say if he begin in wrath to
plead with you? What will you do if he take you
once in hand? will you then strive against his judg-
ment, as now ye do against his grace? Issu xxvii.
4, 5. cc Fury is not in me:" saith the Lord, (that is)
I delight not to destroy you: I do it, as it were un-

THE UNCONVERTED. 103

willingly; but yet " who will set the briers and thorns
against me in battle! I would go through them; I
would burn them together. Or let him take hold of
my strength, that he may,make peace with me." It
is an unequal combat ibr the briers and stubble to
make war with the fire.

And thus you see, who it is that calleth you, that
would move you to hear his call, and turn: so con-
sider also by what instruments, and how often, and
how earnestly he doth it.

1. Every leaf of the blessed book of God hath, as
it were, a voice, and calls out to thee, Turn and live;
turn, or thou wilt die. How canst thou open it, and
read a leaf, or hear a chapter, and not perceive God
bids thee turn?

2. It is the voice of every sermon that thou near-
est: for what else is the scope and drift of all, but to
call and persuade, and entreat thee for to turn.

3. It is the voice of many a motion of the Spirit
that secretly speaks over these words again, and
urgeth thee to turn.

4. It is likely, sometime it is the voice of thy own
conscience. Art thou not sometimes convinced that
all is not well with thee? And doth not thy con-
science tell thee that thou must be a new man,
and take a new course, and often call upon thee to
return ?

5. It is the voice of the gracious examples of the
godly. When thou seest them live a heavenly life,
and fiy from the sin which is thy delight, this really
calls on thee to turn.

6. It is the voice of all the works of God : for they
also are God's books that teach thee this lesson, by
showing thee his greatness, and wisdom, and good-
ness, and calling thee to observe them, and admire
the Creator. Psalm xix. 1, 2. "The heavens
declare the glory of God, and the firmament show-
eth his handy work: day unto day uttereth speech,
night unto night showeth knowledge." Every time
the sun riseth unto thee, it really calleth thee to

104 A CALL TO

turn, as if it should say, " What do I travel and
compass the world for, but to declare to men the
glory of their Maker, and to light them to do his
work? And do I still rind thee doing the work of sin,
and sleeping out thy life in negligence? Awake thou
that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ
shall give thee light." Ephes. v. 14. "The night is
far spent, the day is at hand; it is now high time to
awake out of sleep. Let us therefore cast off the
works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of
light. Let us walk honestly as in the day, not in
rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and
wantonness, not in strife and envying, but put ye on
the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for
the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof." Rom. xiii. 11—
14. This text was the means of Austin's conversion.
7. It is the voice of every mercy thou dost pos-
sess; if thou couldst but hear and understand them,
they all cry out unto thee, Turn. Why doth the
earth bear thee, but to seek and serve the Lord?
Why dpth it afford thee its fruits, but to serve him ?
Why doth the air afford thee breath, but to serve
him? Why do all the creatures serve thee with
their labours and their lives, but that thou mightst
serve the Lord of them and thee? Why doth he
give thee time, and health, and strength, but only to
serve him ? Why hast thou meat, and drink, and
clothes, but for his service ? Hast thou any thing
which thou hast not received? and if thou didst re-
ceive them, it is reason thou shouldst bethink thee
from whom, and to what end and use thou didst re-
ceive them. Didst thou never cry to him lor help
in thy distress, and didst thou not then understand
that it was thy part to turn and serve him, if he
would deliver thee? He hath done Ins part, and
spared thee yet longer, and tried thee another, and
another year; and yet dost thou not turn? You
know the parable of the unfruitful fig-tree, Luke xiii.
7-9. When the Lord had said, " Cut it down,
why cumbereth it the ground?" he was entreated

THE UNCONVERTED. 105

to try it one year longer, and then if it proved not
fruitful, to cut it down. Christ himself there makes
the application twice over, ver. 3 and 5. " Except
ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." How many
years hath God looked for the fruits of love and ho-
liness from thee, and hath found none, and yet he
hath spared thee ? How many a time, by thy wil-
ful ignorance, and carelessness, and disobedience,
hast thou provoked justice to say, " Cut him down,
why cumbereth he the ground ?" And yet mercy hath
prevailed, and patience hath forborne the fatal blow,
to this day. If thou hadst the understanding of a
man within thee, thou wouldst know that all this
calleth thee to turn. " Dost thou think thou shalt
still escape. the judgment of God? or despisest thou
the riches of his goodness, and forbearance, and long
suffering? not knowing that the goodness of God
leadeth thee to repentance. But, after thy hardness
and impenitent heart, treasurest up unto thyself
wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of
the righteous judgment of God; who will render to
every man according to his deeds." Rom. ii. 3 — 6.

8. Moreover, it is the voice of every affliction to
call thee to make haste and turn. Sickness and pain
cry Turn: and poverty, and loss of friends, and
every twig of the chastening rod, cry Turn, and
yet wilt thou not hearken to the call? These have
come near thee, and made thee feel; they have
made thee groan, and can they not make thee
turn?

9. The very frame of thy nature and being itself,
bespeaketh thy return. Why hast thou reason, but
to rule thy flesh, and serve thy Lord? Why hast
thou an understanding soul, but to learn and know
his will and doit? Why hast thou a heart within
thee, that can love, and fear, and desire, but that
thou shouldst fear him, and love him, and desire af-
ter him ?

10. Yea, thine own engagements by promise to
the Lord, call upon thee to turn and serve him.

106 A CALL TO

Thou hast bound thyself to him by a baptismal cov-
enant, and renounced the world, the flesh, and the
devil. This thou hast confirmed by the profession
of Christianity, and renewed it at Sacraments, and
in times of affliction; and wilt thou promise and
vow, and never perform and turn to God?

Lay all these together now, and see what should
be the issue. The holy Scriptures call upon thee to
turn; the ministers of Christ call upon thee to turn;
the Spirit cries Turn; thy conscience cries Turn;
the godly, by persuasions and examples, cry Turn;
the whole world, and all the creatures therein that
are presented to thy consideration, cry Turn; the
patient forbearance of God, cries Turn; all the mer-
cies which thou receivest, cry Turn; the rod of
God's chastisement, cries Turn; thy reason and the
frame of thy nature bespeaks thy turning; and so do
all thy promises to God; and yet art thou not re-
solved to turn?

III. Moreover, poor hard-hearted sinner, didst thou
ever consider upon what terms thou standest all this
while with Him that calleth on thee to turn? Thou
art his own, and o west him thyself, and all thou hast;
and may he not command his own ? Thou art his
absolute servant, and shouldst serve no other mas-
ter. Thou standest at his mercy, and thy life is in
his hand, and he is resolved to save thee upon no
other terms; thou hast many malicious spiritual ene-
mies, that would be glad if God would but forsake
thee, and let them alone with thee, and leave thee to
their will; how quickly would they deal with thee
in another manner ! and thou canst not be delivered
from them but by turning unto God. Thou art
fallen under his wrath by thy sin already; and thou
knowest not how long his patience will yet wait.
Perhaps this is the last year, perhaps the last day.
His sword is even at thy heart, while the word
is in thine ear; and if thou turn not, thou art a
dead and undone man. Were thy eyes hut open
to see where thou standest, even upon the brink of

THE UNCONVERTED. 107

hell, and to see how many thousands are there al-
ready that did not turn, thou wouldst see that it is
time to look about thee.

Well, sirs, look inwards now and tell me how your
hearts are affected with those offers of the Lord,
You hear what is his mind: he delighteth not in
your death; he calls to you, Turn, turn: it is a fear-
ful sign if all this move thee not, or if it do but half
move thee; and much more if it make thee more
careless in thy misery, because thou hearest of the
mercifulness of God. The working of the medicine
will partly tell us whether there be any hope of the
cure. O what glad tidings would it be to those that
are now in hell, if they had but such a message from
God ! What a joyful word would it be to hear this,
Turn and live ! Yea, what a welcome word would
it be to thyself, when thou hast felt that wrath of
God but an hour! Or, if after a thousand or ten
thousand years' torment, thou couldst but hear such
a word from God, Turn and live; and yet wilt thou
neglect it, and suffer us to return without our er-
rand?

Behold, sinners, we are sent here as the messen-
gers of the Lord, to set before you life and death.
What say you? which of them will you choose?
Christ standeth, as it were, by thee, with heaven in
the one hand, and hell in the other, and offereth thee
thy choice. Which wilt thou choose? The voice
of the Lord maketh the rocks to tremble. Psalm
xxix. And is it nothing to hear him threaten thee,
if thou wilt not turn? Dost thou not understand
and feel this voice, " Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye
die?" Why? It is the voice of love, of infinite
love, of thy best and kindest friend, as thou mightst
easily perceive by the motion; and yet canst thou
neglect it? It is the voice of pity and compassion.
The Lord seeth whither thou art going better than
thou dost, which makes him call after thee, Turn,
turn. He seeth what will become of thee, if thou
turn not. He thinketh with himself, cAh! this

108 A CALL TO

poor sinner will cast himself into endless torments,
if he do not turn. I must in justice deal with him
according to my righteous law.' And therefore he
calleth after thee, Turn, turn. O sinner! If thou
didst but know the thousandth part as well as God
doth, the danger that is near you, and the misery
that you are running into, we should have no more
need to call after you to turn.

Moreover, this voice that calleth to thee, is the
same that hath prevailed with thousands already,
and called all to heaven that are now there; and
they would not now for a thousand worlds that they
had made light of it, and not turned to God. Now
what are they possessing that turned at God's call?
Now they perceive that it was indeed the voice of
love, that meant them no more harm than their sal-
vation; and if thou Avilt obey the same call, thou
shalt come to the same happiness. There are mil-
lions that must forever lament that they turned not;
but there is never a soul in heaven that is sorry that
they were converted.

Well, sirs, are you yet resolved, or are you not?
Do I need to say any more to you? What will you
do? Will you turn or not? Speak, man, in thy
heart to God, though you speak not out to me;
speak, lest he take thy silence for denial; speak
quickly, lest he never make thee the like otier
more; speak resolvedly, and not waveringly, for he
will have no indifFerents to be his followers. Say in
thine heart now, without any more delay, even be-
fore thou stir hence, l By the grace of God I am re-
solved presently to turn. And because I know my
own insufficiency, i am resolved to wait on God lor
his grace, and to follow him in his ways, and for-
sake my former courses and companions, and give
up myself to the guidance of the Lord. '

Sirs, you are not shut up in the darkness of heath-
enism, nor in the desperation of the damned. Life
is before you, and you may have it on reasonable
terms, if you will; yea, on free cost, if you will ao

THE UNCONVERTED. 109

cept it. The way of God lieth plain before you;
the church is open to you. You may have Christ,
and pardon, and holiness, if you will. What say
you? Will you or will you not? If you say nay,
or say nothing, and still go on, God is witness, and
this congregation is witness, and your own conscien-
ces are witnesses, how fair an oner you had this day.
Remember, you might have had Christ, and would
not. Remember, when you have lost it, that you
might have had eternal life, as well as others, and
would not; and all because you would not turn!

But let us come to the next doctrine, and hear
your reasons.

Doctrine 6. The Lord condescend eth to reason
the case with unconverted sinners, and to ask
them why they will die.

A strange disputation it is, both as to the contro-
versy and as to the disputants.

I. The controversy, or question propounded to
dispute of is, Why wicked men will destroy them-
selves? or, Why they will rather die than turn;
whether they have any sufficient reason for so doing?

II. The disputants are God and man: the most
holy God, and wicked unconverted sinners.

Is it not a strange thing, which God doth here
seem to suppose, that any man should be willing to
die and be damned? yea, that this should be the case
of the wicked? that is, of the greatest part of the
world. But you will say, ' This cannot be; for
nature desireth the preservation and felicity of itself;
and the wicked are more selfish than others, and not
less; and therefore how can any man be willing to
be damned?5

To which I answer : — 1 . It is a certain truth that
no man can be willing of any evil, as evil, but only
as it hath some appearance of good; much less can
any maD be willing to be eternally tormented. Mis-
ery, as such, is desired by none. 2. But yet for all

110 A CALL TO

that, it is most true which God here teacheth us,
that the cause why the wicked die is, because they
will die. And this is true in several respects.

1. Because they will go the way that leads to hell,
although they are told by God and man whither it
goes and whither it ends; and though God hath so
often professed in his word, that if they hold on in
that way they shall be condemned; and that they
shall not be saved unless they turn, Isa. xlviii. 22.
lvii. 21. lix. 8, " There is no peace, saith the Lord,
to the wicked." " The way of peace they know not;
there is no judgment in their goings; they have
made them crooked paths. Whosoever goeth there-
in, shall not know peace." They have the word
and the oath of the living God for it, that if they
will not turn, they shall not enter into his rest: and
yet, wicked they are, and wicked they will be, let
God and man say what they will: fleshly they are,
and fleshly they will be, worldlings they are, and
worldlings they will be, though God hath told them
that the love of the world is enmity to God, and
that if any man love the world (in that measure) the
love of the Father is not in him. James iv. 4. ; 1
John ii. 15.; so that consequently these men are wil-
ling to be damned, though not directly; they are wil-
ling to walk in the way to hell, and love the certain
cause of their torment; though they do not will hell it-
self, and do not love the pain which they must endure.

Is not this the truth of your case, sirs? You
would not burn in hell, but you will kindle the fire
by your sins, and cast yourselves into it; you would
not be tormented with devils for ever, but you will
do that which will certainly procure it in despite of
all that can be said against it. It is just as if you
would say, ' I will drink this ratsbane, or other poi-
son, but yet I will not die. I will cast myself head-
long from the top of a steeple, but yet I will not kill
myself. I will thrust this knife into my heart, but
yet I will not take away my life. I will put this fire
into the thatch of my house, but yet I will not burn

THE UNCONVERTED. Ill

it.' Just so it is with wicked men; they will be
wicked, and they will live after the flesh and the
world, and yet they would not be damned. But do
you not know that the means lead to the end ? and
that God hath, by his righteous law, concluded that
ye must repent or perish? He that will take poison,
may as well say plainly, 1 will kill myself, for it will
prove no better in the end; though perhaps he loved
it ibr the sweetness of the sugar that was mixed with
it; and would not be persuaded that it was poison,
but that he might take it and do well enough; but it
is not his conceits and confidence that will save his
life. So if you will be drunkards, or fornicators, or
worldlings, or live after the flesh, you may as well
say plainly, We will be damned; for so you shall be
unless you turn. Would you not rebuke the folly
of a thief or murderer, that would say I will steal
and kill, but I will not be hanged, when he knows
that if he does the one, the judge in justice will see
that the other be done? If he say, I will steal and
murder, he may as well say plainly, I will be hanged;
and if you will go on in a carnal life, you may as well
say plainly, We will go to hell.

2. Moreover, the wicked will not use those means
without which there is no hope of their salvation.
He that will not eat, may as well say plainly, he will
not live, unless he can tell how to live without meat.
He that will not go his journey, may as wrell say
plainly he will not come to the end. He that falls
into the water, and will not come out, nor suffer
another to help him out, may as well say plainly, he
will be drowned. So if you be carnal and ungodly,
and will not be converted, nor use the means by
which you should be converted, but think it more
ado than needs, you may as well say plainly you will
be damned; for if you have found out a way to be
saved without conversion, you have done that which
was never done before.

3. Yea, this is not all; but the wicked are unwil
ling even to partake of salvation itself; though they

112 A CALL TO

may desire somewhat which they call by the name
of heaven, yet heaven itself, considered in the true
nature of the felicity, they desire not; yea, their
hearts are quite against it. Heaven is a state of per-
fect holiness, and of continual love and praise to God,
and the wicked have no heart to this. The imper-
fect love and praise and holiness which is here to be
attained, they have no mind of; much less of that
which is so much greater. The joys of heaven are
of so pure and spiritual a nature, that the heart of
the wicked cannot truly desire them.

So that by this time you may see on what ground
it is that God supposeth that the wicked are willing
of their own destruction. They will not turn,
though they must turn or die: they will rather ven-
ture on certain misery, than be converted; and then
to quiet themselves in their sins, they will make
themselves believe that they shall nevertheless es-
cape.

II. And as this controversy is matter of wonder,
that ever men should be such enemies to themselves
as wilfully to cast away their souls, so are the dispu-
tants too. That God should stoop so low as thus
to plead the case with man; and that man should be
so strangely blind and obstinate as to need all this
in so plain a case; yea, and to resist all this, when
their own salvation lieth upon the issue.

No wonder that they will not hear us that are
men, when they will not hear the Lord himself.
As God saith, Ezek. iii. 7, when he sent the proph-
et to the Israelites. " The house of Israel will not
hearken unto thee; for they will not hearken unto
me; for all the house of Israel are impudent and
hard hearted." No wonder if they can plead against
a minister, or a godly neighbour, when they will
plead against the Lord himself, even against the
plainest passages of his word, and think that they
have reason on their side. When they weary the
Lord with their words, they say, " Wherein have
we wearied him? " Mai. ii. 17. The priests that

THE UNCONTESTED. 113

despised his name durst ask, " Wherein have we des-
pised thy name?" And "when they polluted his
altar, and made the table of the Lord con: emptible,"
they durst say, " Wherein have we polluted thee?"
Mai. i. 6, 7. But " Wo unto him (saith the Lord)
that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherds
strive with the potsherds of the earth: shall the clay
say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? "

Quest. — But why is it that God will leason the
case with man?

Answ. — 1. Because that man being a reasonable
creature, is accordingly to be dealt with, and by rea-
son to be persuaded and overcome; God hath there-
fore endowed them with reason that they might use
it for him. One would think a reasonable creature
should not go against the clearest, the greatest rea-
son in the world, when it is set before him.

2. At least, men shall see that God did require
nothing of them that was unreasonable; but both in
what he commandeth them, and what he forbids
them, he hath all the right reason in the world on
his side; and they have good reason to obey him, —
but none to disobey. And thus even the damned
shall be forced to justify God, and confess that it
was only reasonable that they should have turned to
him; and they shall be forced to condemn them-
selves, and confess that they had little reason to cast
away themselves by the neglecting of his grace in the
day of their visitation.

Use.— Look up your best and strongest reasons,
sinners, if you will make good your way. You see
now with whom you have to deal. What sayest
thou, unconverted sensual sinner? Darest thou ven-
ture upon a dispute with God ? Art thou able to con-
fute him ? Art thou ready to enter the lists ? God
asketh thee, Why wilt thou die? Art thou furnish-
ed with a sufficient answer? Wilt thou undertake to
prove that God is mistaken, and that thou art in the
right? O what an undertaking is that! Why, either
10

114 A CALL TO

he or you are mistaken, when he is for your conver-
sion, and you are against it; he calls upon you to
turn, and you will not; he bids you do it presently,
even to-day, while it is called to-day, and you delay,
and think it time enough hereafter. He saith it
must be a total change, and you must be holy and
new creatures, and born again: and you think that
less may serve the turn, and that it is enough to
patch up the old man, without becoming new. Who
is in the right now ? God or you ? God calleth
you to turn, and to live a holy life, and you will
not; — by your disobedient lives, it appears you will
not. If you will, why do you not? Why have you
not done it all this while? And why do you not fall
upon it yet? Your wills have the command of your
lives. We may certainly conclude that you are un-
willing to turn, when you do not turn. And why
will you not? *

Can you give any reason for it, that is worthy to
be called a reason ?

I that am but a worm, your fellow creature, of a
shallow capacity, dare challenge the wisest of you all
to reason the case with me, while I plead my Ma-
ker's cause; and I need not be discouraged when I
know I plead but the cause that God pleadeth, and
contend for him that will have the best at last. Had
I but these two general grounds against you, I am
sure that you have no good reason on your side.

I am sure it can be no good reason which is against
the God of truth and reason. It cannot be light that
is contrary to the sun. There is no knowledge in
any creature but what it had from God ; and therefore
none can be wiser than God. It were fatal presump-
tion for the highest angel to compare with his Crea-
tor! What is it then for a lamp of earth, an igno-
rant sot, thai knoweth not himself nor his own soul,
that knoweth but little of the things which he seeth,
yea, that is more ignorant than many of his neigh-
bours, to set himself against the wisdom of the Lord !
It is one of the fullest discoveries of the horrible wick-

THE UNCONVERTED. 115

edness of carnal men, and the stark-madness of such
as sin, that so silly a mole dare contradict his Maker,
and call in question the word of God : yea. that those
people in our parishes, that are so ignorant that they
cannot give us a reasonable answer concerning the
very principles of religion, are yet so wise in their
own conceit, that they dare question the plainest
truths of God, yea, contradict them and cavil against
them, when they can scarcely speak uense, and will
believe them no further than agreeth ivith their fool-
ish wisdom!

And as I know that God must needs be in the
right, so I know the case is so palpable and gross
which he pleadeth against, that no man can have
reason lor it. Is it possible that a man can have any
reason to break his Maker's laws, and reason to dis-
honour the Lord of glory, and reason to abuse the
Lord that bought him ? Is it possible that a man can
have any good reason to damn his own immortal
soul? Mark the Lord's question, Turn ye, turn ye,
why will ye die? Is eternal death a thing to be de-
sired? Are you in love with hell? What reason
have you wilfully to perish? If you think you have
some reason to sin, should you not remember that
death is the wages of sin, Rom. vi. 23. and think
whether you have any reason to undo yourselves,
body and soul for ever ? You should not only ask
whether you love the adder, but whether you love
the sting? It is such a thing for a man to cast away
his everlasting happiness, and to sin against God,
that no good reason can be given for it; but the more
any one pleads for it, the more mad he showeth him-
self to be. Had you a lordship, or a kingdom offered
you for every sin that you commit, it were not reason
but madness to accept it. Could you by every sin
obtain the highest thing on earth that flesh desireth,
it were of no considerable value to persuade you in
reason to commit it. If it were to please yourgreat-
est or dearest friends, or to obey the greatest prince
on earth, or to save your lives, or to escape the great-

116 A CALL TO

est eaithly misery; all these are of no consideration
to draw a man in reason to the committing of one
sin. If it were a right hand or a right eye that
would hinder your salvation, it is the most gainful
way to cast it away, rather than to go to hell to save
it; for there is no saving a part when you lose the
whole. So exceedingly great are the matters of eter-
nity, that nothing in this world deserveth once to be
named in comparison with them; nor can any earth-
ly thing, though it were life, or crowns, or kingdoms,
be a reasonable excuse for the neglect of matters of
such high and everlasting consequence. A man can
have no reason to cross his ultimate end. Heaven
is such a thing, that if you lose it, nothing can supply
the want or make up the loss; and hell is such a thing,
that if you suffer it, nothing can remove your misery,
or give you ease and comfort; and therefore nothing
can be a valuable consideration to excuse you for
neglecting your own salvation; for, saith our Saviour,
t( What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the
whole world, and lose his own soul?" Mark, viii. S6.
O sirs, that you did but know what matters they
are that we are now speaking to you of! you would
have other kind of thoughts of these things. If the
devil could come to them, the saints in heaven, that
live in the sight and love of God, and should offer
them sensual pleasures, or merry company, or sports
to entice them away from God and glory, I pray you
tell me, how do you think they would entertain the
motion ? Nay, or if he should offer them to be kings
on the earth, do you think this would entice them
down from heaven? O with what hatred and holy
scorn would they reject the motion ! And why should
not you do so, that have heaven opened to your
faith, if you had but faith to Bee it? There is never
a soul in hell, but knows, by tin's time, that it was a
mad exchange to let go heaven tor fleshly pleasure;
and that it is not a little mirth or pleasure, or world-
ly riches, or honour, or the good will or word of men.
that will quench hell fire, or make him a gainer that

THE UNCONVERTED. 117

Joseth his soul. O if you had heard what 1 believe,
if you had seen what I believe, and that on the cred-
it of the word of God, you would say there can be
no reason to warrant a man to destroy his soul; you
durst not sleep quietly another night, before you had
resolved to turn and live.

If you see a man put his hand into the fire till it
burn off, you will marvel at it; but this is a thing that
a man may have a reason for, as Bishop Cranmer
had, when he burnt off his hand for subscribing to
Popery. If you see a man cut off a leg, or an arm,
it is a sad sight; but this is a thing, that a man may
have a good reason for, as many a man hath it done
to save his life. If you see a man give his body to
be tormented with scourges and racks, or to be burn-
ed to ashes, and refuse deliverance when it is offered,
this is a hard case to flesh and blood; but this a man
may have good reason for, as you may see in Heb.
xi. 33 — 36. and as many a hundred martyrs have
done. But for a man to forsake the Lord that made
him, and to run into the fire of hell, when he is told
of it, and entreated to turn that he may be saved, —
this is a thing that can have no reason in the world
to justify or excuse it. For heaven will pay for
the loss of any thing that we can lose to obtain it,
or for any labour which we bestow for it; but
nothing can pay for the loss of heaven.

I beseech you now let this word come nearer to
your heart. As you are convinced that you have no
reason to destroy yourselves, so tell me what reason
have you to refuse to turn and live to God ? What
reason has the veriest worldling, or drunkard, or ig-
norant careless sinner of you all, why he should not
be as holy as any you know, and be as careful for
his soul as any other? Will not hell be as intolera-
ble to you as to others ? Should not your own souls
be as dear to you as theirs to them ? Hath not God
as much authority over you ? Why then will you
not become a sanctified people, as well as they?

O sirs, when God bringeth the matter down to

118 A CALL TO

the very principles of nature, and shows that you
have no more reason to be ungodly than you have
to damn your own souls, — if yet you will not under-
stand and turn, it seems a desperate case that you
are in.

And now, either you have good reason for what
you do, or you have not: if not, will you go against
reason itself? Will you do that which you have no
reason for? But if you think you have, produce it,
and make the best of your matter. Reason the case
a little with me, your fellow-creature, which is far
easier than to reason the case with God; tell me,
man, here before the Lord, as if thou wert to die
this hour, why shouldst thou not resolve to turn this
day; before thou stir from the place thou standest
in, what reason hast thou to deny or to delay?
Hast thou any reason that satisfieth thine own con-
science for it, or any that thou darest own and plead
at the bar of God? If thou hast, let us hear them,
bring them forth, and make them good. But, alas!
what poor stuff, what nonsense, instead of reasons,
do we daily hear from ungodly men! But for their
necessity I should be ashamed to name them.

Object. 1. One saith, if none shall be saved but
such converted and sanctified ones as you talk of,
then heaven would be but empty; then God help
a great many. •

Answ. Why, it seems you think that God doth not
know, or else that he is not to be believed ! Measure
not all by yourselves : God hath thousands and mil-
lions of his sanctified ones; but yet they are few in
comparison of the world, as Christ himself hath told
us, Matt. vii. 13, 14. Luke xi. 32. It better beseems
you to make that use of this truth which Christ
teacheth you: ' Strive to enter in at the strait gate;
for strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, that
leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it; but
wide is the gate and broad is the way which leadeth
to destruction, and many there be that go in thereat, '
Luke xiiL 22-24. Fear not, little flock (saith Christ

THE UNCONVERTED. 119

to his sanctified ones) for it is your Father's good
pleasure to give you the kingdom. Luke xii. 32.

Object. 2. I am sure, if such as I go to hell, we
shall have store of company.

Answ. And will that be any ease or comfort to
you? Or do you think you may not have company
enough in heaven ? Will you be undone for com-
pany, or will you not believe that God will execute
his threatenings, because there be so many that are
guilty? These are all unreasonable conceits.

Object. 3. But all men are sinners, even the best
of you all.

Jlnsw. But all are not unconverted sinners. The
godly live not in gross sins : and their very infirmi-
ties are their grief and burden, which they daily
long, and pray, and strive to be rid of. Sin hath
not dominion over them.

Object. 4. I do not see that professors are any bet-
ter than other men; they will overreach and oppress,
and are as covetous as any.

Jlnsw. Whatever hypocrites are, it is not so with
those that are sanctified. God hath thousands, and
tens of thousands that are otherwise, though the
malicious world doth accuse them of what they can
never prove, and of that which never entered into
their hearts; and commonly they charge them with
heart-sins, which none can see but God, because
they can charge them with no such wickedness in
their lives, as they are guilty of themselves.

Object. 5. But I am no whoremonger, nor drunk-
ard, nor oppressor; and therefore why should you
call upon me to be converted ?

Answ. As if you were not born after the flesh,
and had not lived after the flesh, as well as others !
Is it not as great a sin as any of these, for a man to
have an earthly mind, and to love the world above
God, and to have an unbelieving, unhumbled heart?
Nay, let me tell you more, that many persons that
avoid disgraceful sins, are as fast glued to the world,
and as much slaves to . the flesh, and as strange to

120 A CALL TO

God, and averse to heaven in their more civil course,
as others are in their more shameful, notorious sins.

Object. 6. But I mean nobody any harm, nor do
any harm; and why then should God condemn me?

Jlnsvj. Is it no harm to neglect the Lord that
made thee, and the work for which thou earnest in-
to the world, and to prefer the creature before the
Creator, and to neglect grace that is daily offered
thee? It is the depth of thy sinfulness to be so in-
sensible of it: the dead feel not that they are dead.
If once thou vvert made alive, thou wouldst see more
amiss in thyself, and marvel at thyself for making so
light of it.

Object 7. I think you would make men mad, un-
der pretence of converting them; it is enough to rack
the brains of simple people to muse so much on mat-
ters so high for them.

Jinsw. 1. Can you be more mad than you are al-
ready? or, at least, can there be a more dangerous
madness than to neglect your everlasting welfare,
and wilfully undo yourselves?

2. A man is never well in his wits till he be con-
verted: he never knows God, nor knows sin, nor
knows Christ, nor knows the world, nor himself, nor
what his business is on earth, so as to set himself
about it, till he be converted. The Scripture saith,
that the wicked are unreasonable men, 2 These, iii.
2, and that the wisdom of the world is foolishness
with God, 1 Cor. i. 20. and Luke xv. 17. It is said
of the prodigal, that when he came to himself, he
resolved to return. It is a wise world when men
will disobey God, and run to hell, for fear of being
out of their wits.

3. What is there in the work that Christ calls
you to, that should drive a man out of his wits?
Is it the loving God, and calling upon him, and com-
fortably thinking of the glory to come, and the fbr-
sakingof our sins, and loving one another, and de-
lighting ourselves in the service of God? Are these
such things as should make men mad?

THE UNCONVERTED. 121

4. And whereas you say that these matters are
too high for us; you accuse God himself, for making
this our work, and giving us his word, and com-
manding ail that will be blessed to meditate on it
day and night. — Are the matters which we are made
for, and which we live for, too high for us to meddle
with ? This is plainly to unman us, and to make
beasts of us, as if we were like them that must med-
dle with no higher matters than what belongs to flesh
and earth. If heaven be too high for you to think
on and provide ibr, it will be too high for you ever
to possess.

5. If God should sometimes suffer any weak-head-
ed persons to be distracted by thinking of eternal
things, this is because they misunderstand them,
and run without a guide: and of the two I had rath-
er be in the case of such a one, than of the mad un-
converted world, that take their distraction to be
their wisdom.

Object. 8. I do not think that God cares so much
what men think, or speak, or do, as to make so great
a matter of it.

Answ. It seems then you take the word of God
to be false; then what will you believe? But your
own reason might teach you better, if you believe
not the Scriptures: for you see God sets not so light
by us but that he vouchsafed to make us, and still
preserveth us, and daily upholdeth us, and provideth
for us; and will any wise man make a curious frame
for nothing? Will you make or buy a clock or
watch, and daily look at it, and not care whether it
go true or false? Surely, if you believe not a partic-
ular eye of Providence observing your hearts and
lives, you cannot believe or expect any particular
Providence to observe your wants and troubles, or to
relieve you; and if God had so little care for you as
you imagine, you would never have lived till now; a
hundred diseases would have striven which should
first destroy you; yea, the devils would have haunts
ed you, and fetched you away alive, as the great
11

122 A CALL TO

fishes devour the less, and as ravenous beasts and
birds devour others. You cannot think that God
made man for no end or use; and if he made him for
any, it was surely for himself; and can you think he
cares not whether his end be accomplished, and
whether we do the work that we are made for?

Yea, by this atheistical objection, you make God
to have made and upheld all the world in vain : for
what are all other lower creatures for, but for man?
What! doth the earth but bear us, and nourish us,
and the beasts do serve us with their labours and.
lives, and so of the rest? And hath God made so
glorious a habitation, and set man to dwell in it, and
made all his servants; and now doth he look for
nothing at his hands, nor care how he thinks, or
speaks, or lives? This is most unreasonable.

Object. 9. It was a better world when men did
not make so much ado in religion.

Jlnsw. 1 . It hath ever been the custom to praise
the times past; that world that you speak of was
wont to say it was a better world in their forefath-
ers' days; and so did they of their forefathers. This
is but an old custom, because we all feel the evil of
our own times, but we see not that which was be-
fore us.

2. Perhaps you speak as you think. Worldlings
think the world is at the best when it is agreeable to
their minds, and when they have most mirth and
worldly pleasure; and I doubt not but the devil, as
well as you, would say, that then it was a better
world; for then he had more service and less disturb-
ance. But the world is at the best when God is
most loved, regarded, and obeyed; and how else will
you know when the world is good or bad, but by
this?

Object. 10. There are so many ways and religions,
that we know not which to be of, and therefore we
will be even as we are.

Jinsw. Because there are many, will you be of
that way that you may be sure is wrong? None

THE UNCONVERTED. 123

are further out of the way than worldly, fleshly, un-
converted sinners; for they do not only err in this
or that opinion, as many sects do, but in the very
scope and drift of their lives. If you were going a
journey that your life lay on, would you stop or turn
again, because you met with some cross-ways, or
t because you saw some travellers go the horse-way,
and some the foot-way, and some perhaps break
over the hedge, yea, and some miss the way? Or
would you not rather be the more careful to inquire
the way? If you have some servants that know not
how to do your work right, and some that are un-
faithful, would you take it well of any of the rest
that would therefore be idle and do you no service,
because they see the rest so bad ?

Object. 11. I do not see that it goes any better
with those that are so godly, than with other men;
they are as poor2 and in as much trouble as others.

JSnsvj. And perhaps in much more, when God
sees it meet. They take not earthly prosperity for
their wages; they have laid up their treasure and
hopes in another world; or else they are not Chris-
tians indeed; the less they have, the more is behind,
and they are content to wait till then.

Object. 12. When you have said all that you can,
I am resolved to hope well, and trust in God, and do
as well as I can, and not make so much ado.

Answ. 1. Is that doing as well as you can, when
you will not turn to God, but your heart is against
his holy and diligent service? It is as well as you
will, indeed, but that is your misery.

2. My desire is, that you should hope and trust in
God. But for what is it that you will hope ? Is it to
be saved, if you turn and be sanctified? For this
you have God's promise, and therefore hope for it
and spare not. But if you hope to be saved without
conversion and a holy life, this is not to hope in God,
but in Satan, or yourselves; for God hath given you
no such promise, but told you the contrary; but it i3

124 A CALL TO

Satan and self-love that made you such promises,
and raised you to such hopes.

Well, if these, and such as these, be all you have
to say against conversion and a holy life, your all is
nothing, and worse than nothing; and if these, and
such as these, seem reasons sufficient to persuade
you to forsake God, and cast yourselves into hell,
the Lord deliver you from such reasons, and from
such blind understandings, and from such senseless
hardened hearts. Dare you stand to aver one of
these reasons at the bar of God? Do you think it
will then serve your turn to say, c Lord, I did not
turn, because I had so much to do in the world, or
because I did not like the lives of some professors, or
because I saw men of so many minds!' O how
easily will the light of that day confound and shame
such reasonings as these! Had you the world to
look after? Let the world which you served now
pay you your wages, and save you if it can. Had
you not a better world to look after first, and were
ye not commanded to seek first God's kingdom and
righteousness, and promised that other things should
be added to you ? Matt. vi. S3. And were ye not
told, that godliness was profitable to all things, hav-
ing the promise of this life, and of that which is to
come? 1 Tim. iv. 8. Did the sins of professors
hinder you ? You should rather have been the more
heedful, and learned, by their falls, to beware, and
have been the more careful, and not to be more
careless. It was the Scripture, and not their lives,
that was your rule. Did the many opinions of the
world hinder you? Why, the Scripture, that was
your rule, did teach you but one way, and that was
the right way. If you had followed that, even in so
much as was plain and easy, you should never have
miscarried. Will not such answers as these con-
found and silence you? If these will not, God hath
those that will. When he asked the man, " Friend,
how earnest thou in hither, not having on a wedding*

THE UNCONVERTED. 125

garment? " Matt. xxii. 12. that is, what dost thou
in my Church among professed Christians, without
a hoiy heart and life, — what answer did he make?
Why the text saith, " he was speechless; " he had
nothing to say. The clearness of the case, and the
majesty of God, will then easily stop the mouths of
the most confident of you, though you will not be
put down by any thing we can say to you now, but
will make good your cause, be it ever so bad. I
know already that never a reason that now you can
give me will do you any good at last, when your
case must be opened before the Lord and all the
world.

Nay, I scarce think that your own consciences
are well satisfied with your reasons; for if they are,
it seems then you have not so much as a purpose to
repent. But if you do purpose to repent, it seems
you do not put much confidence in your reasons
which you bring against it.

What say you, unconverted sinners? Have you
any good reasons to give why you should not turn,
and presently turn with all your hearts? Or will
you go to hell in despite of reason itself? Bethink
you what you do in time, for it will shortly be too
late to bethink you. Can you find any fault with
God, or his work, or his wages? Is he a bad master?
Is the devil, whom ye serve, a better? or is the flesh
a better? Is there any harm in a holy life? Is a
life of worldliness and ungodliness better? Do you
think in your consciences that it would do you any
harm to be converted and live a holy life? What
harm can it do you? Is it harm to you to have the
Spirit of Christ within you, and to have a cleansed
purified heart? If it be bad to be holy, why doth
God say, " Be ye holy, for I am holy?55 1 Pet. i. 15,
16. Lev. xx. 7. Is it evil to be like God? Is it
not said that God made man in his own image?
Why, this holiness is his image; this Adam lost, and
this Christ by his word and Spirit would restore
to you, as he doth to all that he will save. Why

126

A CALL TO

were you baptized into the Holy Ghost, and why do
you baptize your children into the Holy Ghost, as
your Sanctifier, if you will not be sanctified by him,
but think it a hurt to you to be sanctified ? Tell me
truly, as before the Lord, though you are loth to
live a holy life, had you not rather die in the case of
those that do so, than of others ? If you were to
die this day, had you not rather die in the case of a
converted man than of an unconverted? of a holy
and heavenly man than of a carnal earthly man?
and would you not say as Baalam, Numb, xxiii. 10.
"Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my
last end be like his ! " And why will you not now
be of the mind that you will be of then? First or
last you must come to this, either to be converted,
or to wish you had been, when it is too late.

But what is it that you are afraid of losing, if you
turn? Is it your friends? You will but change
them; God will be your friend, and Christ and the
Spirit will be your friend, and every Christian will
be your friend. You will get one friend that will
stand you in more stead than all the friends in the
world could have done. The friends you lose would
have but enticed you to hell, but could not have
delivered you : but the friend you get will save you
from hell, and bring you to his own eternal rest.

Is it your pleasures that you are afraid of losing?
You think you shall never have a merry day again
if once you be converted. Alas! that you should
think it a greater pleasure to live in foolish sports
and merriments, and please your flesh, than to live
in the believing thoughts of glory, and in the love of
God, and in righteousness, and peace, and joy in the
Holy Ghost, in which the state of grace consisteth.
Rom. xiv. 17. If it would be a greater pleasure for
you to think of your lands and inheritance, if you
were lord of all the country, than it is for a child
to play at pins; why should it not be a greater joy
to you to think of the kingdom of heaven being
yours, than of all the riches or pleasures of the

THE UNCONVERTED. 127

world? As it is but foolish childishness that makes
children so delight in toys, that they would not leave
them for all your lands, so it is but foolish world-
liness, and ileshliness, and wickedness, that makes
you so much delight in your houses and lands,
and meat and drink, and ease and honour, as that you
would not part with them for the heavenly delights.
But what will you do for pleasure when these are
gone? Do you not think of that? When your
pleasures eni in horror, and go out like a taper, the
pleasures of the saints are then at the best. I have
had myself but a little taste of the heavenly pleas-
ures in the forethoughts of the blessed approaching
day, and in the present persuasions of the love of
God in Christ; but I have taken too deep a draught
of earthly pleasures: so that you may see, if I be
partial, it is on your side; and yet I must profess
from that little experience, that there is no compari-
son. There is more joy to be had in a day, if the
sun of life shine clear upon us, in the state of holi-
ness, than in a whole life of sinful pleasures. " I
had rather be a door-keeper in the house of God,
than to dwell in the tents of wickedness." Ps. lxxxiv.
10. " A day in his courts is better than a thous-
and " any where else. Ps. lxxxiv. 10. The mirth
of the wicked is like the laughter of a madman, that
knows not his own misery; and therefore Solomon
says of such laughter, " it is mad; and of mirth,
what doth it?" Eccles. ii. 2. vii. 2—6. " It is better
to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the
house of feasting; for that is the end of all men, and
the living will lay it to his heart. Sorrow is better
then laughter; fbr by the sadness of the countenance
the heart is made better. The heart of the wise is in
the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in
the house of mirth. It is better to bear the rebuke
of the wise, than to hear the song of fools; for as
the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laugh-
ter of the fool." All the pleasure of fleshly things
is but like the scratching of a man that hath the

128 A CALL TO

itch; it is his disease that makes him desire it, and a
wise man had rather be without his pleasure than be
troubled with his itch. Your loudest laughter is but
like that of a man that is tickled; he laughs when he
has no cause of joy. Judge, as you are men, whether
this be a wise man's part. It is but your carnal un-
sanctified nature that makes a holy life seem grievous
to you, and a course of sensuality seem more delight-
ful. If you will but turn, the Holy Ghost will give
you another nature and inclination, and then it will
be more pleasant to you to be rid of your sin, than
now it is to keep it; and you will then say, that you
knew not what a comfortable life was till now, and
that it was never well with you till God and holiness
were your delight.

Quest. But how cometh it to pass that men
should be so unreasonable in the matters of salva-
tion ? They have wit enough in other matters : what
makes them so loth to be converted, that there
should need so many words in so plain a case, and
all will not do, but the most will live and die uncon-
verted ?

Jlnsw. To name them only in a few words, the
causes are these :

1. Men are naturally in love with the earth and
flesh; they are born sinners, and their nature hath
an enmity to God and goodness, as the nature of a
serpent hath to a man : and when all that we can say
goes against an habitual inclination of their natures,
no marvel if it prevail little.

2. They are in darkness, and know not the very
things they hear. Like a man that was born blind,
and hears a high commendation of the light; but
what will hearing do, unless he sees it? They know
not what God is, nor what is the power of the cross
of Christ, nor what the spirit of holiness is, nor what
it is to live in love by faith: they know not the cer-
tainty, and suitableness, and excellency of the heav-
enly inheritance. They know not what conversion
and a holy mind and conversation is, even when they

THE UNCONVERTED. 129

hear of it. They are in a mist of ignorance. They
are lost and bewildered in sin; like a man that has
lost himself in the night, and knows not where he is,
nor how to come to himself again, till the day-light
recover him.

; 3. They are wilfully confident that they need no
conversion, but some partial amendment; and that
they are in the way to heaven already; and are con-
verted when they are not. And if you meet a man
that is quite out of his way, you may long enough
call on him to turn back again, if he will not believe
you that he is out of the way.

4. They are become slaves to their flesh, and
drowned in the world to make provision for it.
Their lusts, and passions, and appetites have dis-
tracted them, and got such a hand over them, that
they cannot tell how to deny them, or how to mind
any thing else; so that the drunkard saith, I love a
cup of good drink, and I cannot forbear it: the glut-
ton saith, I love good cheer, and I cannot forbear;
the fornicator saith, I love to have my lust fulfilled,
and I cannot forbear; and the gamester loves to have
his sports, and he cannot forbear. So that they are
become even captivated slaves to their flesh, and
their very wilfulness is become an impotency; and
what they would not do, they say they cannot. And
the worldling is so taken Tip with earthly things,
that he hath neither heart, nor mind, nor time, lor
heavenly; but, as in Pharaoh's dream, Gen. xli. 4.
the lean kine did eat up the fat ones; so this lean and
barren earth doth eat up all the thoughts of heaven.

5. Some are so carried away by the stream of evil
company, that they are possessed with hard thoughts
of a godly life, by "hearing them speak against it; or
at least they think they may venture to do as they
see most do, and so they hold on in their sinful ways;
and when one is cut off, and cast into hell, and
another snatched away from among them to the
same condemnation, — it doth not much daunt them,
because they see not whither they are gone. Poor

ISO ■ A CALL TO

wretches, they hold on in their ungodliness for all
this; for they little know that their companions are
now lamenting it in torments. In Luke xvi. the
rich man in hell would fain have had one to warn
his five brethren, lest they should come to that place
of torment. It is likely he knew their minds and
lives, and knew that they were hasting thither, and
little dreamt that he was there, yea, and would little
have believed one that should have told them so.
I remember a passage that a gentleman, yet living,
told me he saw upon a bridge over the Severn.* A
man was driving a flock of fat lambs, and something
meeting them, and hindering their passage, one of
the lambs leapt upon the wall of the bridge, and his
legs slipping from under him, he fell into the stream;
the rest seeing him, did, one after one, leap over the
bridge into the stream, and were all or almost all
drowned. Those that were behind did little know
what was become of them that were gone before;
but thought they might venture to follow their com-
panions; but as soon as ever they were over the
wall, and falling headlong, the case was altered.
Even so it is with unconverted carnal men. One
dieth by them, and drops into hell, and another fol-
lows the same way; and yet they will go after them,
because they think not whither they are gone. O,
but when death hath once opened their eyes, and
they see what is on the other side of the wall, even
in another world, then what would they give to be
where they were !

6. Moreover, they have a subtle malicious enemy,
that is unseen of them, and plays his game in the
dark; and it is his principal business to hinder their
conversion; and therefore to keep them where they
are, by persuading them not to believe the Scrip-
tures, or not to trouble their minds with \\iv$v mat-
ters; or by persuading them to think ill of a godly
life, or to think that more is enjoined than need be,

*Mr. R. Rowly, of Shrewsbury, upon Acham-B ridge.

,

THE UNCONVER'

and that they may be saved without conversion, and
without all this stir; and that God is* so merciful,
that he will not damn any such as they; or at least,
that they may stay a little longer, and take their
pleasure, and follow the world a little longer yet,
and then let it go, and repent hereafter. And by
such juggling, deluding cheats as these, the devil
keeps the most in his captivity, and leadeth them to
his misery.

These, and such like impediments as these, do
keep so many thousands unconverted, when God
hath done so much, and Christ hath suffered so
much, and ministers have said so much for their
conversion; when their reasons are silenced and they
are not able to answer the Lord that calls after them,
" Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die?" yet all comes
to nothing with the greatest part of them; and they
leave us no more to do after all, but to sit down and
lament their wilful misery.

I have now showed you the reasonableness of
God's commands, and the unreasonableness of wick-
ed men's disobedience. If nothing will serve their
turn, but men will yet refuse to turn, we are next to
consider who is in fault if they be damned. And
this brings me to the last doctrine; which is,

Doctrine 7. That if after all this men will not
turn, it is not the fault of God that they are con-
demned, but their own, even their own wilfulness.
They die because they will, that is, because they
will not turn.

If you will go to hell, what remedy? God here
acquits himself of your blood; it shall not lie on him
if you be lost. A negligent minister may draw it
upon him; and those that encourage you or hinder
you not in sin, may draw it upon them; but be sure
of it, it shall not lie upon God. Saith the Lord
concerning his unprofitable vineyard: Isa. v. 1—4.
" Judge, I pray you3 betwixt me and my vineyard :

132

A CALL TO

what could have been done more to my vineyard
that I have not done in it ?" When he had planted
it in a fruitful soil, and fenced it and gathered out
the stones, and planted it with the choicest vines,
what should he have done more to it? He hath
made you men, and endowed you with reason; he
hath furnished you with all external necessaries; all
creatures are at your service; he hath given you a
righteous perfect law. When ye had broken it, and
undone yourselves, he had pity on you, and sent his
Son by a miracle of condescending mercy to die for
you, and be a sacrifice for your sins; and he was in
Christ reconciling the world to himself!

The Lord Jesus hath made you a deed of gift of
himself, and eternal life with him, on the condition
you will but accept it, and return. He hath on this
reasonable condition offered you the free pardon of
all your sins! he hath written this in his word, and
sealed it by his Spirit, and sent it by his ministers :
they have made the offer to you a hundred and a
hundred times, and called you to accept it, and to
turn to God. They have in his name entreated you,
and reasoned the case with you, and answered all
your frivolous objections. He hath long waited on
you, and staid your leisure, and suffered you to
abuse him to his lace ! He hath mercifully sustained
you in the midst of your sins; he hath compassed
you about with all sorts of mercies; he hath also
intermixed afflictions, to remind you of your folly,
and call you to your senses, and his Spirit has been
often striving with your hearts, and saying there,
* Turn, sinner, turn to him that calleth thee: Whith-
er art thou going? What art thou doing? Dost
thou know what will be the end? How long wilt
thou hate thy friends, and love thine enemies?
When wilt thou let go all, and turn and deliver thy-
self to God, and give thy Redeemer the possession
of thy soul? When shall it once be?5 These plead-
ings have been used with thee, and when thou hast
delayed, thou hast been urged to make haste, and

THE UNCONVERTED. 133

God hath called to thee, " To-day, while it is called
to-day, harden not thy heart:" Why not now,
without any more delay? Life hath been set be-
fore you; the joys of heaven have been opened to
you in the gospel; the certainty of them hath been
manifested; the certainty of the everlasting torments
of the damned hath been declared to you; unless
you would have had a sight of heaven and hell,
what could you desire more? Christ hath been, as
it were, set forth crucified before your eyes, Gal. iii.
1. You have been a hundred times told that you
are but lost men till you come unto him; as oft you
have been told of the evil of sin, of the vanity of sin,
the world, and all the pleasures and wealth it can
afford; of the shortness and uncertainty of your
lives, and the endless duration of the joy or torment
of the life to come. All this, and more than this
have you been told, and told again, even till you
were weary of hearing it, and till you could make
the lighter of it, because you had so often heard it,
like the smith's dog, that is brought by custom to
sleep under the noise of the hammers and when the
sparks fly about his ears; and though all this have
not converted you, yet you are alive, and might
have mercy to this day, if you had but hearts to
entertain it. And now let reason itself be the judge,
whether it be the fault of God or yours, if after this
you will be unconverted and be damned. If you
die now, it is because you will die. What should
be said more to you, or what course should be taken
that is more likely to prevail? Are you able to say,
and make it good, 'We would fain have been con-
verted and become new creatures, but we could not ;
we would fain have forsaken our sins, but we could
not; we would have changed our company, and our
thoughts, and our discourse, but we could not.'
Why could you not, if you would ? What hindered
you but the wickedness of your hearts? Who forc-
ed you to sin, or who held you back from duty?
Had not you the same teaching, and time, and lib-

134

A CALL TO

erty to be godly, as your godly neighbours had?
Why then could not you have been godly as well as
they? Were the church doors shut against you, or
did you not keep away yourselves, or sit and sleep,
or hear as if you did not hear? Did God put in
any exceptions against you in his word, when he
invited sinners to return; and when he promised
mercy to those that do return? Did he say, ' I will
pardon all that repent except thee?' Did he shut
thee out from the liberty of his holy worship? Did
he forbid you to pray to him any more than others?
You know he did not. God did not drive you away
from him, but you forsook him, and ran away your-
selves, and when he called you to liim, you would
not come. If God had excepted you out of the
general promise and offer of mercy, or had said to
you, c Stand off*, I will have nothing to do with such
as you; pray not to me, for I will not hear you; if
you repent never so much, and cry for mercy never
so much, I will not regard you.' If God had left
you nothing to trust to but desperation, then you
had had a fair excuse; you might have said, * To
what end do I repent and turn, when it will do no
good?' But this was not your case: you might have
had Christ to be your Lord and Saviour, your head
and husband, as well as others, and you would not,
because you felt yourselves not sick enough for the
physician: and because you could not spare your dis-
ease. In your hearts you said as those rebels, Luke
xix. 1 4. " We will not have this man to reign over
us." Christ would have gathered you under the
wings of his salvation, and you would not. Matt,
xxiii. 37. What desires of your welfare did the
Lord express in his holy word ? With what com-
passion did he stand over you, and say, " O that my
j)eopie had hearkened unto me, and that they had
walked in my ways!" Psalm xvii. 13. lxxvi. 13. " O
that there were such a heart in this people, that they
would fear me, and keep all my commandments al-
ways; that it might be well with them and with

THE UNCONVERTED. 135

their children for ever !" Deut. v. 29. " O that they
were wise, that they understood this, that they
would consider their latter end I" Deut. xxxii. 29.
He would have been your God, and done all for you
that your souls could well desire: but you loved the
world and your flesh above him, and therefore you
would not hearken to him: though you compliment-
ed him, and gave him high titles; yet when it came
to the closing, you would have none of him. Psalm
Jxxxi. 11, 12. No marvel then if he gave you up
to your own hearts' lusts, and you walked in your
own counsels. He condescends to reason, and pleads
the case with you, and asks you, ' What is there in
me, or my service, that you should be so much
against me? What harm have I done thee, sinner?
Have I deserved this unkind dealing at thy hand?
Many mercies have I showed thee: for which of
them dost thou thus despise me ? Is it I, or is it Satan,
that is thy enemy? Is it I, or is it thy carnal self
that would undo thee? Is it a holy life, or a life of
sin that thou hast cause to fly from? If thou be
undone, thou procurest this to thyself, by forsaking
me, the Lord that would have saved thee.5 Jer. ii.
7. " Doth not thy own wickedness correct thee,
and thy sin reprove thee? Thou mayst see that
it is an evil and bitter thing that thou hast forsaken
me." Jer. ii. 19. " What iniquity have you found
in me that you have followed after vanity, and for-
saken me?" Jer. ii. 5,6. He calleth out, as it
were, to the brutes, to hear the controversy he hath
against you. Mic. ii. 3—5. " Hear, O ye mountains,
the Lord's controversy, and ye strong foundations
of the earth; for the Lord hath a controversy with
his people, and he will plead with Israel. O my
people, what have I done unto thee, and wherein
have 1 wearied thee? testify against me, for I
brought thee up out of Egypt, and redeemed thee."
" Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the
Lord hath spoken. I have nourished and brought
up children, and they have rebelled against me.

136 A CALL TO

The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's
crib; but Israel doth not know, my people doth not
consider ! Ah sinful nation, a people laden with in-
iquity, a seed of evil doers ! " &c. Is. i. 2-4. " Do
you thus requite the Lord, O foolish people, and
unwise? Is not he thy Father that bought thee?
Hath he not made thee, and established thee?"
Deut. xxxii. 6. When he saw that you forsook
him, even for nothing, and turned away from your
Lord and life, to hunt after the chaff and feathers
of the world, he told you of your folly, and called
you to a more profitable employment, Isa. lv. 1—3.
" Wherefore do ye spend your money for that which
is not bread, and your labour for that which satis-
fieth not? Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye
that which is good, and let your soul delight itself
in fatness. Incline your ear, and come unto me;
hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an
everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mer-
cies of David. Seek ye the Lord while he may be
found : call ye upon him while he is near. Let the
wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man
his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and
he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for
he will abundantly pardon," and so Isa. i. 16—18.
And when you would not hear, what complaints
have you put him to, charging it on you as your
wilfulness and stubbornness. Jer. ii. 12, 13. "Be as-
tonished, O heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid;
for my people have committed two evils; they have
forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and
hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can
hold no water." Many a time hath Christ proclaim-
ed that free invitation to you, Rev. xxii. 17. " Let
him that is athirst come, and whosoever will, let
him take the water of life freely." But you put
him to complain, after all his offers; " They will not
come to me, that they may have lite." John v. 40.
He hath invited you to feast with him in the king-
dom of his grace, and you have had excuses from

THE UNCONVERTED. 137

your grounds, and your cattle, and your worldly
business; and when you would not come, you have
said you could not; and provoked him to resolve
that you should never taste of his supper, Luke xiv.
1 6 — 25. And who is it the fault of now hut your-
selves? and what can you say is the chief cause of
your damnation but your own wills? you would be
damned. The whole case is laid open by Christ
himself, Prov. i. 20—33. " Wisdom crieth without,
she uttereth her voice in the streets; she crieth in
the chief place of the concourse, — How long, ye
simple ones, will ye love simplicity, and the scorners
delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge ?
Turn ye at my reproof. Behold, I will pour out my
Spirit upon you, I will make known my words unto
you. Because I have called, and ye refused. I have
stretched out my hands and no man regarded; but
ye have set at naught all my counsels, and would
none of my reproofs. I also will laugh at your ca-
lamity, I will mock when your fear cometh: when
your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction
cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish
cometh upon you, then shall they call upon me, but
I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they
shall not find me; for that they hated knowledge,
and did not choose the fear of the Lord. They
would none of my counsels : they despised all my re-
proof; therefore, shall they eat of the fruit of theii
own way, and be filled with their own devices. For
the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and
the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. But who-
so hearkeneth to me shall dwell safely, and shall be
quiet from the fear of evil." I thought best to re-
cite the whole text at large to you, because it doth
so fully show the cause of the destruction of the
wicked. It is not because God would not teach
them, but because they would not learn. It is not
because God would not call them, but because they
would not turn at his reproof. Their wilfulness is
their undoing.

12

138 A CALL TO

Use. — From what hath been said, you may fur-
ther learn these following things :

1. From hence you may see, not only what blas-
phemy and impiety it is to lay the blame of men's
destruction upon God; but also how unfit these
wicked wretches are to bring in such a charge
against their Maker! They cry out upon God, and
say he gives them not grace, and his threatenings
are severe, and God forbid that all should be con-
demned that be not converted and sanctified; and
they think it hard measure that a short sin should
have an endless suffering; and if they be damned,
they say they cannot help it, when in the mean time
they are busy about their own destruction, even the
destruction of their own souls, and will not be per-
suaded to hold their hands. They think God were
cruel, if he should condemn them; and yet they
are so cruel to themselves, that they will run into
the fire of hell, when God hath told them it is a lit-
tle before them; and neither entreaties, nor threat-
enings, nor any thing that can be said, will stop
them. We see them almost undone; their careless,
worldly, fleshly lives tell us that they are in the
power of the devil; we know, if they die before they
are converted, all the world cannot save them; and
knowing the uncertainty of their lives, we are afraid
every day lest they drop into the fire: and therefore
we entreat them to pity their own souls, and not. to
undo themselves when mercy is at hand; and they
will not hear us. We entreat them to cast away
their sin, and come to Christ without delay, and to
have some mercy on themselves, but they will have
none; and yet they think that God must be cruel if
he condemn them. O wilful miserable sinners ! it is
not God that is cruel to you, it is you that are cruel
to yourselves; you are told you must turn or burn,
and yet you turn not. You are told that if you will
needs keep your sins, you shall keep the curse of
God with them; and yet you will keep them. You
are told that there is no way to happiness but by

THE UNCONVERTED. 139

holiness; and yet you will not be holy. What
would you have God say more to you? What
would you have him do with his mercy? He
onereth it to you, and you will not have it. You
are in the ditch of sin and misery, and he would
give you his hand to help you out, and you refuse
his help; he would cleanse you of your sins, and you
had rather keep them; you love your lust, and love
your gluttony and sports, and drunkenness, and will
not let them go; would you have him bring you to
heaven whether you will or not? Or would you
have him bring you and your sins to heaven togeth-
er? Why that is an impossibility; you may as well
expect he should turn the sun into darkness. What !
an unsanctified fleshly heart be in heaven? it cannot
be. There entereth nothing that is unclean. Rev.
xxi. 17. "For what communion hath light with
darkness, or Christ with Belial? " 2 Cor. vi. 14, 15.
"All the day long hath he stretched out his hands
to a disobedient and gainsaying people." Rom. x.
21. What wTill you do now? Will you cry to God
for mercy? Why, God calleth upon you to have
mercy upon yourselves, and you will not ! Minis-
ters see the poisoned cup in the drunkard's hand,
and tell him there is poison in it, and desire him to
have mercy on his soul, and forbear, and he will not
hear us! Drink it he must and will; he loves it,
and therefore, though hell comes next, he saith he
cannot help it. What should one say to such men
as these? We tell the ungodly careless worldling,
it is not such a lite that will serve the turn, or ever
bring you to heaven. If a bear were at your back,
you would mend your pace; and when the curse of
God is at your back, and Satan and hell are at your
back, will you not stir, but ask, What needs all this
ado? Is an immortal soul of no more worth? O
have mercy upon yourselves! But they will have
no mercy on themselves, nor once regard us. We
tell them the end will be bitter. Who can dwell
with the everlasting fire? And yet they will have

140 A CALL TO

no mercy on themselves. And yet will these shame-
less transgressors say, that God is more merciful than
to condemn them; when it is themselves that cruelly
and unmercifully run upon condemnation; and if we
should go to them, and entreat them, we cannot stop
them; if we should fall on our knees to them, we
cannot stop them, but to hell they will go, and yet
will not believe that they are going thither. If we
beg of them for the sake of God that made them,
and preserveth them; for the sake of Christ, that
died for them; for the sake of their own souls, to
pity themselves, and go no further in the way to
hell, but come to Christ while his arms are open,
and enter into the stats of life while the door stands
open, and now take mercy while mercy may be had,
they will not be persuaded. If we should die for it,
we cannot so much as get them now and then to
consider with themselves of the matter, and to turn:
and yet they can say, i I hope God will be merciful.'
Did you never consider what he saith, Isa. xxvii. 1 1 .
" It is a people of no understanding; therefore, he
that made them will not have mercy on them, and
lie that formed them will show them no favour."
If another man will not clothe you when you are
naked, and feed you when you are hungry, you will
say he is unmerciful. If he should cast you into
prison, or beat and torment you, you would say he
is unmerciful; and yet you will do a thousand times
more against yourselves, even cast away both soul
and body for ever, and never complain of your
own unmerci fulness! Yea, and God that waited
upon you all the while with his mercy, must be ta-
ken to be unmerciful, if he punish you after all this.
Unless the holy God of heaven will give these
wretches leave to trample upon his Son's blood,
and with the Jews, as it were, again to spit in his
face, and do despite to the spirit of grace, and make
a jest of sin, and a mock at holiness, and set more
light by saving mercy than by the filth of their flesh-
ly pleasures; and unless, after all this, he will save

THE UNCONVERTED. 141

them by the mercy which they cast away and would
have none of, God himself must be called unmerci-
ful by them ! But he will be justified when he judg-
eth, and he will not stand or fall at the bar of a sin-
ful worm.

I know there are many particular cavils that are
brought by them against the Lord; but I shall not
here stay to answer them particularly, having done
it already in my Treatise of Judgment , to which 1
shall refer them. Had the disputing part of the
world been as careful to avoid sin and destruction,
as they have been busy in searching after the cause
of them, and forward indirectly to impute it to God,
they might have exercised their wits more profitably,
and have less wronged God, and sped better them-
selves. When so ugly a monster as sin is within
us, and so heavy a thing as punishment is on us,
and so dreadful a thing as hell is before us, one
would think it should be an easy question, who is in
the fault, whether God or man be the principal
or culpable cause? Some men are such favourable
judges of themselves, that they are more prone to
accuse the infinite perfection and goodness itself, than
their own hearts, and imitate their first parents, that
said, "The serpent tempted me; and the woman
that thou gavest me gave unto me, and I did eat;"
secretly implying that God was the cause. So say
they, " The understanding that thou gavest me was
unable to discern; the will that thou gavest me was
unable to make a better choice; the objects which
thou didst set before me did entice me; the tempta-
tions which thou didst permit to assault me prevailed
against me." And some are so loth to think that
God can make a self-determining creature, that they
dare not deny him that which they take to be his
prerogative, to be the determiner of the will in every
sin, as the first efficient immediate physical cause;
and many could be content to acquit God from so
much causing of evil, if they could but reconcile it
with his being the chief cause of good, as if truths

142 A CALL TO

would be no longer truths than we are able to see
them in their perfect order and coherence: because
our ravelled wits cannot see them right together, nor
assign each truth its proper place, we presume to
conclude that some must be cast away. This is
the fruit of proud self-conceitedness, when men re-
ceive not God's truth as a child his lesson, in holy-
submission to the omniscience of our Teacher, but
censurers, that are too wise to learn.

Object. But we cannot convert ourselves till God
convert us; we can do nothing without his grace; it
is not in him that willeth, nor in him that runneth,
but in God that showeth mercy.

Answ. 1. God hath two degrees of mercy to
show; the mercy of conversion first, and the mercy
of salvation last; the latter he will give to none
but those that will and run, and hath promised it
to them only. The former is to make them willing
that are unwilling; and though your own willing-
ness and endeavours deserve not his grace, yet^our
wilful refusal deserveth that it should be denied to
you. Your disability is your very unwillingness it-
self, which excuseth not your sin, but maketh it
the greater. You could turn if you were but truly
willing; and if your wTills themselves are so corrupt-
ed, that nothing but effectual grace will move them,
you have the more cause to seek for that grace, and
yield to it, and do what you can in the use of means,
and not neglect it, and set against it. Do what you
are able first, and then complain of God for denying
you grace, if you have cause.

Object. But you seem to intimate all this while
that man hath free-will.

JLnsw. 1. The dispute about free-will is beyond
your capacity; I shall therefore now trouble you with
no more but this about it. Your will is naturally a
free, that is, a self-determining faculty; but it is vi-
ciously inclined, arid backward to do good : and there-
fore we see, by sad experience, that it hath not a
virtuous moral freedom: but that it is the wickedness

THE I ^CONVERTED. 143

of it which deserveth the punishment; and I pray you,
let us not befool ourselves with opinions. Let the
case be your own. If you had an enemy that was
so malicious, as to fall upon you and beat you, or
take away the lives of your children, would you
excuse him, because he said, I have not free-will, it
is my nature; I cannot choose unless God give me
grace? If \^ou had a servant that robbed you, would
you take such an answer from him? Might not
every thief and murderer that is hanged at the assize
give such an answer: I have not free-will; I cannot
change my own heart; what can I do without God's
grace? and shall they therefore be acquitted? If
not, why then should you think to be acquitted for
a course of sin against the Lord?

2. From hence also you may observe these three
things together: — 1. What a subtle tempter Satan
is. 2. What a deceitful thing sin is. 3. What a
foolish creature corrupted man is. A subtle tempter
indeed, that can persuade the greatest part of the
world to go into everlasting fire, when they have so
many warnings and dissuasives as they have ! A de-
ceitful thing is sin indeed, that can bewitch so many
thousands to part with everlasting life, for a thing so
base and utterly unworthy ! A foolish creature is
man indeed, that will be cheated of his salvation for
nothing, yea, for a known nothing; and that by an
enemy, and a known enemy. You would think it
impossible that any man in his wits should be per-
suaded for a little to cast himself into the fire, or
water, or into a coal-pit, to the destruction of his
life; and yet men will be enticed to cast themselves
into hell. If your natural lives were in your own
hands, that you should not die till you would kill
yourselves, how long would most of you live? And
yet when your everlasting life is so far in your own
hands under God, that you cannot be undone till
you undo yourselves, how few of you will forbear
your own undoing ! Ah, what a silly thing is man !
and what a bewitching. and befooling thing is sin.

144

A CALL TO

3. From hence also you may learn, that it is no
great wonder if wicked men be hinderers of others
in the way to heaven, and would have as many un-
converted as they can, and would draw them into
sin, and keep them in it. Can you expect that they
should have mercy on others, that have none upon
themselves? and that they should hesitate much at
the destruction of others, that hesitate not to destroy
themselves? They do no worse by others than
they do by themselves.

4. Lastly, You may hence learn that the greatest
enemy to man is himself; and the greatest judgment
in this lite that can befall him, is to be left to himself;
that the great work that grace hath to do, is to save
us from ourselves; that the greatest accusations and
complaints of men should be against themselves;
that the greatest work that we have to do ourselves,
is to resist ourselves; and the greatest enemy that we
should daily pray, and watch, and strive against, is
our own carnal hearts and wills; and the greatest
part of your work, if you would do good to others,
and help them to heaven, is to save them from them-
selves, even from their blind understandings and cor-
rupted wills, and perverse affections, and violent pas-
sions, and unruly senses. I only name all these tor
brevity's sake, and leave them to your further con-
sideration.

Well, sirs, now we have found out the great de-
linquent and murderer of souls (even men's selves,
their own wills,) what remains but that you judge
according to the evidence, and confess this great in-
iquity before the Lord, and be humbled for it, and do
so no more? To these three ends distinctly, I shall
add a few words more. 1. Further to convince
you. 2. To humble you. And, S. To reform
you, if there yet be any hope.

1. We know so much of the exceeding gracious
nature of God, who is willing to do good, and de-
lighteth to show mercy, that we have no reason to
suspect him of being the culpable cause of our death,

THE UNCONVERTED 145

or to call him cruel; he made all good, and he pre-
served! and maintaineth all; the eyes of all wait up-
on him, and he giveth them their meat in due season;
he openeth his hand, and satisfieth the desires of all
the living. Psalm cxlv. 15, 16. He is not only
righteous in all his ways, and therefore will deal just-
ly; and holy in all his works, and therefore not the
author of sin; but he is also good to all, and his tender
mercies are over all his works. Psalm cxlv. 17, 19.

But as for man, we know his mind is dark, his
will perverse, and his affections carry him so head-
long, that he is fitted by his folly and corruption to
such a work as the destroying of himself. If you
saw a lamb lie killed in the way, would you sooner
suspect the sheep, or the dog, or the wolf, to be the
author of it, if they both stand by? Or if you see
a house broken open and the people murdered, would
you sooner suspect the prince or judge, that is wise
and just, and had no need, or a known thief or mur-
derer? I say therefore, as James i. 13 — 15, "Let no
man say, when he is tempted, that he is tempted of
God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither
tempteth he any man, to draw him to sin; but every
man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own
lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived,
it bringeth forth sin; and sin, when it is finished,
bringeth forth death." You see here that sin is the
offspring of your own concupiscence, and not to be
charged on God ; and that death is the offspring of
your own sin, and the fruit which it will yield you
as soon as it is ripe. You have a treasure of evil in
yourselves, as a spider hath of poison, from whence
you are bringing forth hurt to yourselves, and spin-
ning such webs as entangle your own souls. Your
nature shows it is you that are the cause.

2. It is evident that you are your own destroyers,
in that you are so ready to entertain any temptation
almost that is offered you. Satan is scarcely more
ready to move you to any evil, than you are ready
to hear, and to do as he would have you. If he
13

146 A CALL TO

would tempt your understanding to error and preju-
dice, you yield. If he would hinder you from good
resolutions, it is soon done. If he would cool any
good desires or affections, it is soon done. If he
would kindle any lust, or vile affections and desires
in you, it is soon done. If he will put you on to
evil thoughts, or deeds, you are so free, that he
needs no rod or spur. If he would keep you from
holy thoughts, and words, and ways, a little doth it,
you need no curb. You examine not his sugges-
tions, nor resist them with any resolution, nor cast
them out as he casts them in, nor quench the sparks
which he endeavoureth to kindle; but you set in
with him, and meet him halfway, and embrace his
motions, and tempt him to tempt you. And it is
easy to catch such greedy fish that are ranging for a
bait, and will take the bare hook.

3. Your destruction is evidently of yourselves, in
that you resist all that would help to save you, and
would do you good, or hinder you from undoing
yourselves. God would help and save you by his
word, and you resist it, it is too strict for you. He
would sanctify you by his Spirit, and you resist and
quench it. If any man reprove you for your sin,
you fly in his face with evil words: and it' he would
draw you to a holy life, and tell you of your present
danger, you give him little thanks, but either bid
him look to himself, he shall not answer for you; or
else, at best, you put him off with heartless thanks,
and wil\ not turn when you are persuaded. If min-
isters would privately instruct and help you, you will
not come to them; your unhumbled souls reel but
little need of their help; if they would catechise you,
you are too old to be catechised, though you are not
too old to be ignorant and unholy. Whatever they
can say to you for your good, you are so sell-conceit-
ed and wise in your own eyes, even in the depth of
ignorance, that you will regard nothing that agreeth
not with your present conceits, but contradict your
teachers, as if you were wiser than they; you resist

THE UNCONVERTED. 147

all that they can say to you by your ignorance, and
wilfulness, and foolish cavils, and shifting evasions,
and unthankful rejections, so- that no good that is
offered can find any welcome acceptance and enter-
tainment with you.

4. Moreover, it is apparent that you are self-des-
troyers, in that you "draw the matter of your sin
and destruction even from the blessed God himself."
You like not the contrivances of his wisdom; you
like not his justice, but take it for cruelty; you like
not his holiness, but are ready to think he is such
an one as yourselves, Psalm 1. 21. and makes as
light of sin as you; you like not his truth, but would
have his threatenings, even his peremptory threat-
enings, prove false; and his goodness, which you
seem most highly to approve, you partly resist, as it
would lead you to repentance; and partly abuse, to
the strengthening of your sin, as if you might more
freely sin because God is merciful, and because his
grace doth so much abound.

5. Yea, you fetch destruction from the blessed
Redeemer, and death from the Lord of life himself!
and nothing more emboldeneth you in sin, than that
Christ hath died for you; as if now the danger of
death were over, and you might boldly venture; as
if Christ were become a servant to Satan and your
sins, and must wait upon you while you are abusing
him; and because he is become the Physician of
souls, and is able to save to the uttermost all that
come to God by him, you think he must suffer you
to refuse his help, and throw away his medicines,
and must save you whether you will come to God
by him or not: so that a great part of your sins are
occasioned by your bold presumption upon the death
of Christ, — not considering that he came to redeem
his people from their sins, and to sanctify them a
peculiar people to himself, and to conform them in
holiness to the image of their heavenly Father, and
to their head. Matt. i. 21. Tit. ii. 14. 1 Pet. i. 15,
16 Col. Hi. 10, 11. Phil. iii. 95 10.

148 A CALL TO

6. You also fetch your own destruction from all
the providences and works of God. When you
think of his eternal fore-knowledge and decrees, it is
to harden you in your sin, or possess your minds
with quarrelling thoughts, as if his decrees might
spare you the labour of repentance and a holy life,
or else were the cause of sin and death. If he afflict
you, you repine; if he prosper you, you the more
forget him, and are the more backward to the
thoughts of the life to come. If the wicked prosper,
you forget the end that will set all reckonings
straight, and are ready to think it is as good to be
wicked as godly; and thus you draw your death
from all.

7. And the like you do from all the creatures and
mercies of God to you. He giveth them to you as
the tokens of his love and furniture for his service,
and you turn them against him, to the pleasing of
your flesh. You eat and drink to please your appe-
tite, and not for the glory of God, and to enable you
to perform his work. Your clothes you abuse to
pride; your riches draw your hearts from heaven,
Phil. iii. 18; your honours and applause pufi'.you up;
if you have health and strength, it makes you more
secure, and forget your end. Yea, other men's
mercies are abused by you to your hurt. If you
see their honours and dignity, you are provoked
to envy them; if you see their riches, you are ready
to covet them; if you look upon beauty, you are
stirred up to lust; and it is well if godliness be not
an eye-sore to you.

8. The very gifts that God bestoweth on you, and
the ordinances of grace which he hath instituted for
his church, you turn to sin. If you have better
parts than others, you grow proud and st'll-coiueit-
ed;ifyou have but common gifts, you take them
for special grace. You take the bare hearing of
your duty for so good a work, as if it would excuse
you for not obeying it. Your prayers are turned
into sin, because you " regard iniquity in your

THE UNCONVERTED. 149

hearts," Ps. lxvi. 18. and depart not from iniquity
when you call on the name of the Lord. 2 Tim. ii.
19. Your "prayers are abominable, because you
turn away your ear from hearing the law," Prov.
xxviii. 9. and are more ready to offer the sacrifice of
fools, thinking you do God some special service,
than to hear his word and obey it Eccles. y. 1.

9. Yea, the persons that you converse with, and
all their actions, you make the occasions of your sin
and destruction; if they live in the fear of God,
you hate them. If they live ungodly, you imitate
them; if the wicked are many, you think you may
the more boldly follow them; if the godly be few,
you are the more emboldened to despise them. If
they walk exactly, you think they are too precise;
if one of them fall in a particular temptation, you
stumble and turn away from holiness, because
that others are imperfectly holy; as if you were
warranted to break your necks, because some others
have by their heedlessness strained a sinew, or put.
out a bone. If a hypocrite discover himself you
say, 'They are all alike,' and think yourselves as hon-
est as the best. A professor can scarce slip into any
miscarriage, but because he cuts his finger, you
think you may boldly cut your throats. If minis-
ters deal plainly with you, you say they rail. If
they speak gently or coldly, you either sleep under
them, or are little more affected than the seats you
sit upon. If any errors creep into the church, some
greedily entertain them, and others reproach the
Christian doctrine for them, which is most against
them. And if we would draw you from any ancient
rooted error, which can but plead two, or three, or
six, or seven hundred years' custom, you are as much
offended with a motion for reformation as if you
were to lose your life by it, and hold fast old errors,
while you cry out against new ones. Scarce a dif-
ference can arise among the ministers of the gospel,
but you will fetch your own death from it; and you
will not hear, or at least not obey, the unquestiona-

150 A CALL TO

ble doctrine of any of those that agree not with yon?
conceits. One will not hear a minister, because he
saith the Lord's prayer; and another will not hear
him because he doth not use it. One will not hear
them that are for episcopacy; and another will not
hear them that are against it. And thus I might
show it you in many other cases, how you turn all
that comes near you to your own destruction; so
clear is it that the ungodly are self-destroyers, and
that their perdition is of themselves.

Methinks now, upon the consideration of what is
said, and the review of your own ways, you should
bethink you what you have done, and be ashamed
and deeply humbled to remember it. If you be not,
I pray you consider these following truths: —

1. To be your own destroyers, is to sin against
the deepest principle in your natures, even the prin-
ciple of self-preservation. Every thing naturally de-
sireth or inclineth to its own felicity, welfare, or per-
fection; and will you set yourselves to your own
destruction? When you are commanded to love
your neighbours as yourselves, it is supposed that
you naturally love yourselves; but if you love your
neighbours no better than yourselves, it seems you
would have all the world to be damned.

2. How extremely do you cross your own inten-
tions! I know you intend not your own damnation,
even when you are procuring it; you think you are
but doing good to yourselves, by gratifying the desires
of your rlesh. But, alas, it is but as a draught of cold
water in a burning fever, or as the scratching of an
itching wild-fire, which increaseth the disease and
pain. If indeed you would have pleasure, profit, or
honour, seek them where they are to be found, and
do not hunt after them in the way to hell.

8. What pity is it that you should do that against
yourselves which none else on earth or in hell can
do! If all the world were combined against you, or
all the devils in hell were combined against you, they
could not destroy you without yourselves, nor make

THE UNCONVERTED. 151

you sin but by your own consent : and will you do
that against yourselves which no one else can do ?
You have hateful thoughts of the devil, because he
is your enemy, and endeavoureth your destruction*
and will you be worse than devils to yourselves?
Why thus it is with you, if you had hearts to un-
derstand it: when you run into sin, and run from
godliness, and refuse to turn at the call of God, you
do more against your own souls than men or devils
could do besides; and if you should set yourselves
and bend your wits to do yourselves the greatest
mischief, you could not devise to do a greater.

4. You are false to the trust that God hath re-
posed in you. He hath much intrusted you with
your own salvation; and will you betray your trust?
He hath set you, with all diligence, to keep your
hearts; and is this the keeping of them? Prov. iv. 28.

5. You do even forbid all others to pity you, when
you will have no pity on yourselves. If you cry to
God in the day of your calamity, fbr mercy, mercy —
what can you expect, but that he should thrust you
away, and say, 'Nay, thou wouldst not have mercy
on thyself; who brought this upon thee but thy own
wilfulness?5 And if your brethren see you everlast-
ingly in misery, how shall they pity you that wTere
your own destroyers, and would not be dissuaded?

6. It will everlastingly make you your own tor-
mentors in hell, to think that you brought yourselves
wilfully to that misery. O what a piercing thought
it will be for ever to think with yourselves that this
was your own doing ! that you were warned of this
day, and warned again, but it would not do; that
you wilfully sinned, and wilfully turned away from
God ! that you had time as well as others, but you
abused it; you had teachers as well as others, but
you refused their instruction; you had holy exam-
ples, but you did not imitate them; you were offer-
ed Christ, and grace, and glory, as well as others,
but you had more mind of your fleshly pleasures !
you had a price in your hands, but you had not a

152 A CALL TO

heart to lay it out. Prov. xvii. 16. Can it fail to
torment you to think of this your present folly? O
that your eyes were opened to see what you have
done in the wilful wronging of your own souls ! and
that you better understood these words of God.
Prov. viii. 33 — 36. " Hear instruction and be wise,
and refuse it not. Blessed is the man that heareth
me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts
of my doors: for whoso findeth me findeth life, and
shall obtain favour of the Lord. But he that sin-
neth against me, wrongeth his own soul. All they
that hate me love death."

And now I am come to the conclusion of this
work, my heart is troubled to think how I shall
leave you, lest after this the flesh should still deceive
you, and the world and the devil should keep you
asleep, and I should leave you as I found you, till
you awake in hell. Though in care of your poor
souls, I am afraid of this, as knowing the obstinacy
of a carnal heart; yet I can say with the prophet
Jeremiah, xvii. 16. "I have not desired the woful
day, thou Lord knowest." I have not with James
and John desired that " fire might come from heav-
en" to consume them that refused Jesus Christ.
Luke ix. 54. But it is the preventing of the eternal
fire that I have been all this while endeavouring: and
O that it had been a needless work ! That God and
conscience might have been as willing to spare me
this labour as some of you could have been. Dear
friends, I am so loth that you should lie in everlast-
ing fire, and be shut out of heaven, if it be possible
to prevent it, that I shall once more ask you, what
do you now resolve? Will you turn or die? I look
upon you as a physician on his patient, in a danger-
ous disease, that saith to him, 'Though you are
far gone, take but this medicine, and forbear but
those few things that are hurtful to you, and I dare
warrant your life; but if you will not do this, you
are but a dead man.5 What would you think of
such a man, if the physician, and all the friends he

THE UNCONVERTED. 153

hath, cannot persuade him to take one medicine to
save his life, or to forbear one or two poisonous
things that would kill him? This is your case. As
far as you are gone in sin, do but now turn and
come to Christ, and take his remedies, and your
souls shall live. Cast up your deadly sins by repent-
ance, and return not to the poisonous vomit any
more, and you shall do well. But yet, if it were
your bodies that we had to deal with, we might
partly know what to do for you. Though you
would not consent, yet you might be held or bound
while the medicine were poured down your throats,
and hurtful things might be kept from you. But
about your souls it cannot be so; we cannot convert
you against your wills. There is no carrying mad-
men to heaven in fetters. You may be condemned
against your wills, because you sinned with your
wills; but you cannot be saved against your wills.
The wisdom of God has thought meet to lay men's
salvation or destruction exceedingly much upon the
choice of their own will, that no man shall come to
heaven that chose not the way to heaven; and no
man shall come to hell, but shall be forced to say, ' I
have the thing I chose; my own will did bring me
hither.5 Now, if I could but get you to be willing,
to be thoroughly, and resolvedly, and habitually wil-
ling, the work were more than half done. And alas !
must we lose our friends, and must they lose their
God, their happiness, their souls, for want of this?
O God forbid ! It is a strange thing to me that men
are so inhuman and stupid in the greatest matters,
who in lesser things are civil and courteous, and
good neighbours. For aught I know, I have the
love of all, or almost all my neighbours, so far, that
if I should send to any man in the town, or parish,
or country, and request a reasonable courtesy of
them, they would grant it me; and yet when I come
to request of them the greatest matter in the world,
for themselves, and not for me, I can have nothing
of many of them but a patient hearing. I know not

154 A CALL TO

whether people think a man in the pulpit is in good
earnest or not, and means as he speaks; for I think
I have few neighbours, but, if I were sitting famil-
iarly with them, and telling them what I have seen
and done, or known in the world, they themselves
shall see and know in the world to come, they would
believe me, and regard what I say; but when 1 tell
them, from the infallible word of God, what they
themselves shall see and know in the world to come,
they show by their lives, that they do either not be-
lieve it or not much regard it. If I met any one of
them on the way, and told them yonder is a coal-pit,
or there is a quicksand, or there are thieves lying in
wait for you, I could persuade them to turn by; but
when I tell them that Satan lieth in wait for them,
and that sin is poison to them, and that hell is not a
matter to be jested with, they go on as if they did
not hear me. Truly, neighbours, I am in as good
earnest with you in the pulpit as I am in my famil-
iar discourse; and if ever you will regard me, 1 be-
seech you let it be here. I think there is not a man
of you all, but, if my own soul lie at your wrills, you
would be willing so save it, though I cannot promise
that you would leave your sins for it. Tell me, thou
drunkard, art thou so cruel to me, that thou wouldst
not forbear a few cups of drink, if thou knowest it
would save my soul from hell? Hadst thou rather
that I did burn there for ever than thou shouldst
live soberly as other men do? If so, may I not say,
thou art an unmerciful monster, and not a man? If
I came hungry or naked to one of your doors, would
you not part writh more than a cup of drink to re-
lieve me? I am confident you would. If it were
to save my life, I know you would, some of you,
hazard your own; and yet will you not be entreated
to part with your sensual pleasures for your own sal-
vation? Wouldst thou Ibrbear a hundred cups of
drink, to save my life, if it were in thy power, and
wilt thou not do it to save thy own soul? I profess
to you, sirs, I am as hearty a beggar with you this

THE UNCONVERTED. 155

day for the saving of your own souls, as I would be
for my own supply, if I were forced to come beg-
ging to your doors; and therefore if you would hear
me then, hear me now. If you would pity me then,
be entreated now to pity yourselves. I do again be-
seech you, as if it were on my bended knees, that
you would hearken to your Redeemer, and Turn,
that you may live. All you that have lived in igno-
rance, and carelessness, and presumption to this day;
all you that have been drowned in the cares of the
world, and have no mind of God, and eternal glory;
all you that are enslaved to your fleshly desires of
meats and drinks, sports and lusts; and all you that
know not the necessity of holiness, and never were
acquainted with the sanctifying work of the Holy
Ghost upon your souls; that never embraced your
blessed Redeemer by a lively faith, and with admir-
ing and thankful apprehensions of his love; and that
never felt a higher estimation of God and heaven,
and a heartier love to them than to your fleshly
prosperity, and the things below, — I earnestly be-
seech you, not only for my sake, but for the Lord's
sake, and for your soul's sake, that you go not one
day longer in your former condition, but look about
you, and cry to God for converting grace, that you
may be made new creatures, and may escape the
plagues that are a little before you. And if ever
you will do any thing for me, grant me this request,
to turn from your evil ways and live. Deny me any
thing that ever I shall ask you for myself, if you will
but grant me this; and if you deny me this, I care
not for any thing else that you would grant me.
Nay, as ever you will do any thing at the request of
the Lord that made you and redeemed you, deny
him not this; for if you deny him this, he cares for
nothing that you shall grant him. As ever you
would have him hear your prayers, and grant your
requests, and do for you at the hour of death and
day of judgment, or in any of your extremities, de-
ny not his request now in the day of your prosperi-

156 A CALL TO

ty. O, sirs, believe it, death and judgment, and
heaven and hell, are other matters when you come
near them, than they seem to carnal eyes afar off;
then you would hear such a message as I bring you
with more awakened regardful hearts.

Well, though I cannot hope so well of all, I will
hope that some of you are by this time purposing
to turn and live : and that you are ready to ask me,
as the Jews did Peter, (Acts ii. 37.) when they were
pricked in their hearts, and said, "Men and brethren,
what shall we do?" How might we come to be tru-
ly converted ? We are willing, if we did but know
our duty. God forbid that we should choose des-
truction, by refusing conversion, as hitherto we have
done.

If these be the thoughts and purposes of your
hearts, I say of you as God did of a promising peo-
ple, Deut. v. 28, 29. « They have well said all that
they have spoken: O that there were such a heart in
them, that they would fear me, and keep all my
commandments always ! " Your purposes are good :
O that there were but a heart in you to perform
these purposes ! And in hope hereof I shall gladly
give you direction what to do, and that but briefly,
that you may the easier remember it for your prac-
tice.

Direction I. — If you would be converted and
saved, labour to understand the necessity and true
nature of conversion: for what, and from what, and
to what, and by what it is that you must turn.

Consider in what a lamentable condition you are
till the hour of your conversion, that you may see
it is not a state to be rested in. You are under the
guilt of all the sins that ever you committed, and
under the wrath of God and the curse of his law:
you are bond slaves to the devil, and daily em-
ployed in his work against the Lord, yourselves,
and others: you are spiritually dead and deformed,
as being devoid of the holy life, and nature, and lm-

THE UNCONVERTED. 157

age of the Lord. You are unfit for any holy work,
and do nothing that is truly pleasing to God. You
are without any promise or assurance of his protec-
tion, and live in continual danger of his justice, not
knowing what hour you may be snatched away to
hell, and most certain to be lost if you die in that con-
dition; and nothing short of conversion can prevent
it. Whatever civilities, or amendments, are snort of
true conversion, will never procure the saving of
your souls. Keep the true sense of this natural
misery, and so of the necessity of conversion on your
hearts.

And then you must understand what it is to be
converted; it is to have a new heart or disposition,
and a new conversation.

Quest I. For what must we turn?

Jlnsw. For these ends following, which you may
attain: 1. You shall immediately be made living
members of Christ, and have an interest in him, and
be renewed after the image of God, and be adorned
with all his graces, and quickened with a new and
heavenly life, and saved from the tyranny of Satan,
and the dominion of sin, and be justified from the
curse of the law, and have the pardon of all the sins
of your whole lives, and be accepted of God, and
made his sons, and have liberty with boldness to
call him Father, and go to him by prayer in all your
needs, with a promise of acceptance; you shall have
the holy Ghost to dwell in you, to sanctify and guide
you; you shall have part in the brotherhood, com-
munion, and prayers of the saints; you shall be fit-
ted for God's service, and be freed from the domin-
ion of sin, and be useful and a blessing to the place
where you live; and shall have the promise of this
life and' that which is to come; you shall want noth-
ing that is truly good for you, and your necessary af-
flictions you will be enabled to bear; you may have
some taste of communion with God in the Spirit,
especially in all holy ordinances, where God prepar-
eth a feast for your souls; you shall be heirs of hea

15S A CALL TO

ven while you live on earth, and may foresee by faith
the everlasting glory, and so may live and die in
peace; and you shall never be so low but your happi-
ness will be incomparably greater than your misery.

How precious is every one of these blessings,
Which I do but briefly name, and which in this life
you may receive !

And then, 2. At death your souls shall go to
Christ, and at the day of judgment both soul and
body shall be justified and glorified, and enter into
your Master's joy, where your happiness will con-
sist in these particulars:

1. You shall be perfected yourselves; your mor-
tal bodies shall be made immortal, and the corrup-
tible shall put on incorruption; you shall no more
be hungry, or thirsty, or weary, or sick, nor shall
you need to fear either shame, or sorrow, or death,
or hell; your souls shall be perfectly freed from sin,
and perfectly fitted for the knowledge, and love, and
praises of the Lord.

2. Your employment shall be to behold your glo-
rified Redeemer, with all your holy fellow-citizens
of heaven, and to see the glory of the most blessed
God, and to love him perfectly, and be beloved by
him, and to praise him everlastingly.

3. Your glory will contribute to the glory of the
New Jerusalem, the city of the living God; which is
more than to have a private felicity to yourselves.

4. Your glory will contribute to the glorifying of
your Redeemer, who will everlastingly be magnified
and pleased in that you are the travail of his soul;
anil this is more than the glorifying of yourselves.

5. And the eternal Majesty, the living God, will
be glorified in your glory, both as he is magnified by
your praises, and as he communieateth of his glory
and goodness to you, and as he is pleased in you,
and in the accomplishment of his glorious work, in
the glory of the New Jerusalem, and of his Son.

All this the poorest beggar of you that is convert
ed, shall certainly and endlessly enjoy.

THE UNCONVERTED. 159

II. You see for what you must turn: next you
must understand from what you must turn; and
this is, in a word, from your carnal self, which is the
end of all the unconverted: — from the flesh that
would be pleased before God, and would still be en-
ticing you; — from the world, that is the bait; and
from the devil, that is the angler for souls, and the
deceiver. And so from all known and wilful sins.

III. Next you must know to what end you must
turn; and that is, to God as your end; to Christ as
the way to the Father; to holiness as the way ap-
pointed you by Christ; and to the use of all the helps
and means of grace afforded you by the Lord.

IV. Lastly, You must know by what you must
turn; and that is by Christ, as the only Redeemer
and Intercessor; and by the Holy Ghost, as the
Sanctifier; and by the word, as his instrument or
means; and by faith and repentance, as the means
and duties on your part to be performed. All this
is of necessity.

Direction II. — If you will be converted and sav-
ed, be much in serious secret consideration. Incon-
siderateness undoes the world. Withdraw your-
selves oft into retired secrecy, and there bethink
you of the end why you were made, of the life you
have lived, of the time you have lost, the sins you
have committed; of the love and sufferings, and ful-
ness of Christ; of the danger you are in; of the near-
ness of death and judgment; of the certainty and
excellency of the joys of heaven; and of the certainty
and terror of the torments of hell, and the eternity
of both; and of the necessity of conversion and a
holy life. Absorb your hearts in such considera-
tions as these.

Direction III. — If you will be converted and
saved, attend upon the word of God, which is the
ordinary means. Read the Scripture, or hear it
read, and other holy, writings that do apply it; con-

160 A CALL TO

stantly attend on the public preaching of the word.
As God will light the world by the sun, and not by
himself without it, so will he convert and save men
by his ministers, who are the lights of the world.
Acts xxvi. 17, 18. Matt. v. 14. When he had mi-
raculously humbled Paul, he sent him to Ananias,
Acts ix. 10; and when he had sent an angel to Cor-
nelius, it was but to bid him send for Peter, who
must tell him what to believe and do.

Direction IV. — Betake yourselves to God in a
course of earnest constant prayer. Confess and la-
ment your former lives, and beg his grace to illumi-
nate and convert you. Beseech him to pardon what
is past, and to give you his Spirit, and change your
hearts and lives, and lead you in his ways, and save
you from temptation. Pursue this work daily, and
be not weary of it.

Direction V. — Presently give over your known
and wilful sins. Make a stand, and go that way no
farther. Be drunk no more, but avoid the very
occasion of it. Cast away your lusts and sinful
pleasures with detestation. Curse, and swear, and
rail no more; and if you have wronged any, restore,
as Zaccheus did : if you will commit again your old
sins, what blessing can you expect on the means
for conversion ?

Direction VI. — Presently, if possible, change
your company, if it hath hitherto been bad; not by
forsaking your necessary relations, but your unne-
cessary sinful companions; and join yourselves with
those that fear the Lord, and inquire of them the
way to heaven. Acts ix. 1 9, 26. Psalm xv. 4.

Direction VII. — Deliver up yourselves to the
Lord Jesus, as the physician of your souls, that he
may pardon you by his blood, and sanctity you by
his Spirit, by his word and ministers, the instru-

THE UNCONVERTED. 161

ments of the Spirit. He is the way, the truth, and
the life; there is no coming to the Father but by
him. John xiv. 6. Nor is there any other name un-
der heaven, by which you can be saved. Acts iv. 12.
Study, therefore, his person and natures, and what,
he hath done for you, and what he is to you, and
what he will be, and how he is fitted to the full sup-
ply of all your necessities.

Direction VIII. — If you mean indeed to turn
and live, do it speedily, without delay. If you be
not willing to turn to-day, you are not willing to do
it at all. Remember, you are all this while in your
blood, under the guilt of many thousand sins, and
under God's wrath, and you stand at the very brink
Df hell; there is but a step between you and death:
and this is not a case for a man that is well in his
wits to be quiet in. Up therefore presently, and fly
as for your lives, as you would be gone out of your
house if it were all on fire over your head. O, if
you did but know in what continual danger you live,
and what daily unspeakable loss you sustain, and
what a safer and sweeter life you might live, you
would not stand trifling, but presently turn. Mul-
titudes miscarry that wilfully delay, when they are
convinced that it must be done. Your lives are
short and uncertain; and what a case are you in if
you die before you thoroughly turn! Ye have
staid too long already, and wronged God too long.
Sin getteth strength while you delay. Your con-
version will grow more hard and doubtful. You
have much to do, and therefore put not all off to
the last, lest God forsake you, and give you up to
yourselves, and then you are undone for ever.

Direction IX. — If you will turn and live, do it
unreservedly, absolutely, and universally. Think
not to capitulate with Christ, and divide your heart
between him and the world; and to part with some
sins, and keep the rest; and to let that go which
14

162 A CALL TO

your flesh can spare. This is but self-deluding; you
must in heart and resolution forsake all that you
have, or else you cannot be his disciples. Luke xiv.
26, S3. If you will not take God and heaven for
your portion, and lay all below at the feet of Christ,
but you must needs also have your good things here,
and have an earthiy portion, and God and glory are
not enough for you, — it is in vain to dream of salva-
tion on these terms; for it will not be. If you seem
never so religious, if yet it be but a carnal right-
eousness, and if the flesh's prosperity, or pleasure,
or safety, be still excepted in your devotedness to
God, this is as certain a way to death as open pro-
faneness, though it be more plausible.

Direction X. — If you will turn and live, do it
resolvedly, and stand not still deliberating, as if it
were a doubtful case. Stand not wavering, as if
you were uncertain whether God or the flesh be the
better master, or whether sin or holiness be the bet-
ter way, or whether heaven or hell be the better
end. But away with your former lusts, and pre-
sently, habitually, fixedly resolve. Be not one day
of one mind, and the next day of another; but be at
a point with all the world, and resolvedly give up
yourselves and all you have to God. Now, while
you are reading, or hearing this, resolve; before you
sleep another night, resolve; before you stir from
the place, resolve; before Satan have time to take
you ofF, resolve. You never turn indeed till you do
resolve, and that with a firm unchangeable resolu-
tion.

And now I have done my part in this work, that
you may turn to the call of God, and live. What
will become of it I cannot tell. I have cast the seed
at God's command; but it is not in my power to
give the increase. I can go no further with my
message; I cannot bring it to your heart, nor make

THE UNCONVERTED. 163

it work; 1 cannot do your parts for you to entertain it
and consider it; nor can I do God's part, by opening
your heart to entertain it; nor can I show heaven or
hell to your sight, nor give you new and tender
hearts. If I knew what more to do for your conver-
sion, 1 hope I should do it.

But O thou that art the gracious Father of spir-
its, thou hast sworn thou delightest not in the death
of the wicked, but rather that they turn and live;
deny not thy blessing to these persuasions and di-
rections, and suffer not thine enemies to triumph in
thy sight, and the great deceiver of souls to prevail
against thy Son, thy Spirit, and thy Word ! O pity
poor unconverted sinners, that have no hearts to
pity or help themselves! Command the blind to
see, and the deaf to hear, and the dead to live, and
let not sin and death be able to resist thee. Awak-
en the secure, resolve the unresolved, confirm the
wavering; and let the eyes of sinners, that read these
lines, be next employed in weeping over their sins,
and bring them to themselves, and to thy Son, be-
fore their sins have brought them to perdition. If
thou say but the word, these poor endeavours shall
prosper to the winning of many a soul to their ever-
lasting joy, and thine everlasting glory. — Amen.

]YOW OR NEVER.

EXTRACTED FROM

A DISCOURSE OF REV. RICHARD BAXTER.

ECCLES. IX. 10.

Whatsoever thy hand findeth, to do, do it with thy
might ; for there is no work, nor device, nor
knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither
thou goest.

The mortality of man being the principal sub-
ject of Solomon in this chapter, and observing that
wisdom and piety exempt not men from death, he
first hence infers, that God's love or hatred to one
man above another, is not to be gathered by his
dealings with them here, where all things in the com-
mon course of providence come alike to all. The
common sin hath introduced death as a common
punishment, which levels all, and ends all the con-
trivances, businesses, and enjoyments of this life,
to good and bad; and discriminating justice is not
ordinarily manifested here: an epicure or infidel
would think Solomon was here pleading his unman-
ly impious cause: but it is not the cessation of the
life, or operations, or enjoyments of the soul that
he is speaking of, as if there were no life to come,
or the soul of man were not immortal; but it is the
cessation of all the actions, and honours, and pleas-
ures of this life, which to good or bad shall be no

166 now or NEVER.

more. Here they have no more reward, the memo-
ry of them will be here forgotten. " They have no
more a portion for ever in any thing that is done
under the sun."

From hence he further infers, that the comforts
of life are but short and transitory, and therefore
that what the creature can afford, must be presently
taken: and as the wicked shall have no more but
present pleasures, so the faithful may take their law-
ful comforts in the present moderate use of the crea-
tures. For if their enjoyment be of right and use
to any, it is to them; and, therefore, .though they
may not use them to their hurt, to the pampering of
their flesh, and strengthening their lusts, and hin-
dering spiritual duties, benefits, . and salvation; yet
must they u serve the Lord with joy fulness, and with
gladness of heart, for the abundance of all tlungs "
which he giveth them.

Next he infers, from the brevity of man's life, the
necessity of speed and diligence in his duty. And
this is in the words of my text; where you have,
1. The duty commanded. 2. The reason or mo-
tive to enforce it.

The duty is in the first part, " Whatsoever thy
hand findeth to do," that is, whatever work is as-
signed thee by God to do in this thy transitory life,
" do it with thy might;" that is, 1. Speedily, without
delay. 2. Diligently; and not with slothfulness, or
by halves.

2. The motive is in the latter part, " For there
is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom,
in the grave, whither thou goest;" that is, it must
be now or never. The grave, where thy work can-
not be done, will quickly end thy opportunities.
The sense is obviously contained in these two pro-
positions : —

Doctrine 1. — "The work of this life cannot
be done when this life is ended : or, There is no
working in the grave, to which we are all making
haste."

NOW OR NEVER. 167

Doctrine 2. — "Therefore, while we have time,
we must do our best: or do the work of this pres-
ent life with vigour and diligence."

I. It is from an unquestionable and commonly ac-
knowledged truth, that Solomon here urgeth us to
diligence in duty; and therefore to prove it would
be but loss of time. As there are two worlds for
man to live in, and so two lives for man to live, so
each of these lives hath its peculiar employment.
This is the life of preparation : the next is the life
of rewards or punishments. We are now but in the
womb of eternity, and must live hereafter in the open
world. We are now but sent to school to learn the
work that we must do for ever: this is the time of
our apprenticeship; we are learning the trade that
we must live upon in heaven. We run now, that
we may then receive the crown; we fight now, that
we may then triumph in victory. The grave hath
no work; but heaven hath work, and hell hath suf-
fering: there is no repentance unto life hereafter;
but there is repentance to torment and to despera-
tion. There is no believing of a happiness unseen
in order to the obtaining of it; or of a misery unseen
in order to the escaping of it; nor believing in a
Saviour in order to these ends. But there is the
fruition of the happiness which was here believed;
and feeling of the misery that men would not be-
lieve; and suffering from him as a righteous Judge,
whom they rejected as a merciful Saviour. So that
it is not all work that ceaseth at our death; but only
the work of this present life.

And indeed no reason can show us the least proba-
bility of doing our work when our time is gone, that
was given us to do it in. If it can be done, it must
be, 1. By the recalling of our time. 2. By there-
turn of life. 8. Or, by opportunity in another life.
But there is no hope of any of these.

1. Who knoweth not that time cannot be re-
called? That which once was, will be no more.
Yesterday will never come again. To-day is pass-

163 NOW OR NEVER.

ing, and will not return. You may work while it
is day; but when you have lost that, day, it will not
return for you to work in. While your candle
burnetii, you may make use of its light; but when it
is done, it is too late to use it. No force of medi-
cine, no orator's elegant persuasions, no worldling's
wealth, no prince's power, can call back one day or
hour of time. K they could, what endeavours would
there be used, when extremity hath taught them to
value what they now despise! What bargaining
would there be at last, if time could be purchased
for any thing that man can give. Then misers
would bring out their wealth, and say, l All this will
I give for one day's time of repentance more.5 And
lords and knights would lay down their honours, and
say, t Take all, and let us be beggars, if we may
have but one year of the time that we unspent.*
Then kings would lay down their crowns, and say,
' Let us be equal with the lowest subjects, so we
may but have the time again that we wasted in the
cares and pleasures of the world.' Kingdoms would
then seem a contemptible price for the recovery of
time.

The time that is now idled and talked away; the
time that is now feasted and complimented away,
that, is unnecessarily sported and slept away; that is
wickedly and presumptuously sinned away; how
precious will it one day seem to all ! How happy a
bargain would they think they had made, if at the
dearest rates they could redeem it?

The profanest mariner falls a praying, when he
fears his titne is at an end. If importunity would
then prevail, how earnestly would they pray for the
recovery of time that formerly derided praying!
What a liturgy would death teach the trilling time-
despising gallants, the idle, busy, dreaming, active,
ambitious, covetous lovers of this world, if time could
be entreated to return! How passionately then
would they pour out their requests! 'O that we
might once see the days of hope, and means, and

NOW OR NEVER. 169

mercy, which once we saw, and .would not see! O
that we had those days to spend in penitential tears
and prayers, and holy preparations for an endless
life, which we spent at cards, in needless recreations,
in idle talk, in humouring others, in the pleasing of
our flesh, or in the inordinate cares and businesses
of the world ! O that our youthful vigour might
return! that our years might be renewed! that the
days we spent in vanity might be recalled ! that min-
isters might -again be sent to us publicly and private-
ly, with the message of grace which we once made
light of ! that the sun would once more shine upon
us ! and that patience and mercy would once more
reassume their work ! '

If cries or tears, or price or pains, would bring
back lost abused time, how happy were the now
distracted, dreaming, dead-hearted, and impenitent
world ! If it would then serve their turn to say to
the vigilant believers, " Give us of your oil, for our
lamps are gone out;" or to cry, " Lord, Lord, open
to us," when the door is shut; the foolish would be
saved as well as the wise. But " this is the day of
salvation ! this is the accepted time." While it is
called to-day, hearken, and harden not your hearts.
Awake, thou that sleepest, and use the light that is
afforded thee by Christ; or else the everlasting utter
darkness will shortly end thy time and hope.

2. And as time can never be recalled, so life shall
never be here restored: "If a man die, shall he
live (here) again?" All the days of our appointed
time we must therefore wait, in faith and diligence,
till our change shall come. One life is appointed
us on earth, to despatch the work on which our
everlasting life dependeth: and we shall have but
one. Lose that, and all is lost for ever : yet you may
hear, and read, and learn, and pray; but when this
life is ended, it shall be so no more. You shall rise
from the dead indeed to judgment, and to the life
that you are now preparing for; but never to such a
life as this on earth • your life is as the fighting of a
15

170 NOW OR NEVLft.

battle, that must be won or lost at once. There is
no coming hither again to mend what is done amiss.
Oversights must be presently corrected by repent-
ance, or else they are everlastingly past remedy.
Now, if you be not truly converted, you may be; if
you find that you are carnal and miserable, you may
be healed; if you are unpardoned, you may be par-
doned; if you are enemies, you may be reconciled
to God: but when once the thread of life is cut,
your opportunities are at an end. Now you may
inquire of your friends and teachers what you must
do to be saved; and you may receive particular
instructions and exhortations, and God may bless
them, to the illuminating, renewing, and saving of
your souls. But when life is past, it will be so
no more. O then, if departed souls might but re-
turn, and once more be tried with the means of life,
what joyful tidings would it be! How welcome
would the messenger be that bringeth it! Had
hell but such an offer as this, and would any cries
procure it from their righteous Judge, O what a
change would be among them ! How importunately
would they cry to God, * O send us once again to
the earth ! Once more let us see the face of mercy,
and hear the tenders of Christ and of salvation !
Once more let the ministers offer us their helps, and
teach in season and out of season, in public and in
private, and we will refuse their help and exhorta-
tions no more: we will hate them, and drive them
away from our houses and towns no more. Once
more let us have thy word, and ordinances, and try
whether we will not believe them, and use them bet-
ter than we did. Once more let us have the help
and company of thy saints, and we will scorn them,
and abuse them, and persecute them no more. O
for the great invaluable mercy of such a life as once
we had ! O try us once more with such a life, and
see whether we will not contemn the we
close with Christ, and live as strictly, and ,
earnestly, as those that we hated and abuse3

NOW OR NEVER. 171

doing ! O that we might once more be admitted in-
to the holy assemblies, and have the Lord's days to
spend in the business of our salvation ! We would
plead no more against the power and purity of the
ordinances; we would no more call that day a bur-
den, nor hate them that spent it in works of holi-
ness, nor plead for the liberty of the flesh therein.'

He that would have Lazarus sent from the dead
to warn his unbelieving brethren on earth, no doubt
would have strongly purposed himself on a reforma-
tion, if he might once more have been tried : and
how earnestly would he have begged for such a trial,
that begged so hard for a drop of water ? But, alas !
such mouths must be stopped for ever with — " Re-
member that thou, in thy lifetime, received thy good
things."

So that " it is appointed for men once to die, and
after that the judgment." But there is no return
to earth again: the places of your abode, employ-
ment, and delight, shall know you no more. You
must see these faces of your friends, and converse
in flesh with men no more. This world, those
houses, that wealth and honour, as to any fruition,
must be to you as if you had never known them.

You must assemble here but a little while. Yet
a little longer, and we must preach, and you must
hear it no more for ever. That therefore which
you will do, must presently be done, or it will be
too late. If ever you will repent and believe, it
must be now. If ever you will be converted and
sanctified, it must be now. If ever you will be par-
doned and reconciled to God, it must be now. If
ever you will reign, it is now that you must fight
and conquer. "O that you were wise, that you
understood this, and that you would consider your
latter end !" And that you would let those words
sink down into your hearts, which came from the
heart of the Redeemer, as was witnessed by his
tears: " If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in
this thy day, the things which belong unto thy

172 NOW OR NEVER.

peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes."
And that these warnings may not be the less re-
garded, because you have so often heard them; when
often hearing increaseth your obligation, and dimin-
isheth not the truth, or your danger.

3. And as there is no return to earth, so is there no
doing this work hereafter. Heaven and hell are for
other work. The harvest doth presuppose the seed-
time, and the labour of the husbandman. It is now
that you must sow, and hereafter that you must
reap. It is now that you must work, and then that
you must receive your wages.

Is this believed and considered by the sleepy
world? Alas! sirs, do you live as men that must
live here no more? Do you work as men that must
work no more, and pray as men that must pray no
more, when once the time of work is ended ? What
thinkest thou ! will God command the sun to stand
still while thou rebeliest or forgettest thy work and
him! Dost thou expect he should pervert the
course of nature, and continue the spring and seed-
time till thou hast a mind to sow? Will he renew
thy age, and make thee young again, and call back
the hours that thou hast prodigally wasted on thy
lusts and idleness? Canst thou look for this at the
hand of God, when nature and Scripture assure
thee of the contrary? If not, why hast thou not
yet done with thy beloved sins ? Why hast thou
not yet begun to live? Why sittest thou still while
thy soul is unrenewed, and all thy preparation tor
death and judgment is yet to make? How fain
would Satan find thee thus at death? How lain
would he have leave to blow out thy candle, before
thou hast entered into the way of life? Dost thou
look to have preachers sent after thee, to bring thee
the mercy which thy contempt here left behind?
Wilt thou hear and be converted in the grave and
hell? or wilt thou be saved without holiness? that
is, in despite of God that hath resolved it shall not
be. 0 ye sons of sleep, of death, of darkness,

NOW OR NE_

awake, and live, and hear the IXQrd, before the grave
and hell have shut their mouthsfiipo'ri- you !iH lijgr^^
now, lest hearing be too late ! Hear now, if you
will ever hear. Hear now, if you have ears to hear !
And, O ye sons of light, that see what sleeping sin-
ners see not, call to them, and ring them such a peal
of lamentations, tears, and compassionate entreaties,
as is suited to such a dead and doleful state; who
knows but God may bless it to awake them?

II. If any of you be so far awakened as to ask me
what I am calling you to do, my text tells you in
general. Up and be doing; look about you, and see
what you have to do, and do it with your might.

1. "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do," that
is, whatsoever is a duty imposed by the Lord, what-
soever is a means conducing to thy own or others5
welfare; whatsoever necessity calleth thee to do,
and opportunity alloweth thee to do.

" Thy hand findeth;" that is, thy executive powers
by the conduct of thy understanding, is now to do.

" Do it with thy might." Do thy best in it.

1. Trifle not, but do it presently, without un-
necessary delay.

2. Do it resolutely; remain not doubtful, unre-
solved, in suspense, as if it were yet a question with
thee whether thou shouldst do it, or not.

3. Do it with thy most awakened affections, and
serious intention of the powers of thy soul. Sleepi-
ness and insensibility are most unsuitable to such
works.

4. Do it with all necessary forecast and contri-
vance: not with a distracting hindering care; but
with such a care as may show that you despise not
your Master, and are not regardless of his work:
and with such a care as is suited to the difficulties
and nature of the thing, and is necessary to the due
accomplishment of it.

5. Do it not slothfully, but vigorously and with
diligence. " Hide not thy hand in thy bosom with
the slothful," and say not, "There is a lion in the

174

NOW OR NEVER.

way." The negligent and the vicious, the waster
and the slothful, differ but as one brother from
another. As the self-murder of the wilful ungodly,
so also the desire of the slothful killeth him, because
his hands refuse to labour. " The soul of the slug-
gard desireth and hath nothing; but the soul of the
diligent shall be made fat." "Be not slothful in
business, but be fervent in spirit, serving the Lord."

6. Do it with constancy, and not with destruc-
tive pauses and intermissions, or with weariness and
turning back. " The righteous shall hold on his
way, and he that is of clean hands shall be stronger
and stronger." " Be steadfast, unmoveable, always
abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as
you know that your labour is not in vain in the
Lord." "Be not weary in well-doing: for in due
season we shall reap if we faint not."

But, that misunderstanding hinder not the per-
formance, I shall acquaint you further with the
sense, by these few explicatory cautions.

1. The might and diligence here required, ex-
clude not the necessity of deliberation and prudent
conduct. Otherwise, the faster you go, the further
you may go out of the way; and misguided zeal may
spoil all the work, and make it but an injury to
others or yourselves. A little imprudence in the
season, and order, and manner of a duty, sometimes
may spoil it, and hinder the success, and make it do
more hurt than good. How many a sermon, or
prayer, or reproof, is made the matter of derision
and contempt, for some imprudent passages or de-
portment! God sendeth not his servants to be
jesters of the world, or to play the madman as Da-
vid in his fears; we must be wise and innocent, as
well as resolute and valiant: though fleshly and
worldly wisdom be not desirable, as being but fool-
ishness with God; yet the wisdom which is from
above, and is first pure and then peaceable, and is
acquainted with the high and hidden mysteries, and
is justified of her children, must be the guide of all

NOW OR NEVER. 175

our holy actions. Holiness is not blind: illumina-
tion is the first part of sanctification. Believers are
children of the light. Nothing requireth so much
wisdom as the matters of God, and of our salvation.
Folly is most unsuitable to such excellent employ-
ments, and most unbeseeming the sons of the Most
High. It is a spirit of wisdom that animateth all
the saints. " Howbeit we speak wisdom among them
that are perfect; yet not the wisdom of this world,
nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought:
but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even
the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the
world unto our glory." It is the treasures of wisdom
that dwell in Christ, and are communicated to his
members. We must "walk in wisdom toward
them that are without." And our works must be
" shown out of a good conversation, with meekness
of wisdom."

2. Though you must work with your might, yet
with a diversity agreeable to the quality of your sev-
eral works. Some works must be preferred before
others: all cannot be done at once. That is a sin
out of season, which in season is a duty. The
greatest, and the most urgent work must be pre-
ferred. And some works must be done with double
fervour and resolution, and some with less. Buy-
ing, and selling, and possessing, and using the world,
must be done with a fear of overdoing, and in a
manner as if we did them not, though they also
must have a necessary diligence. God's " kingdom
and its righteousness must be first sought." And
our labour for the meat that perisheth, must be
comparatively as none: " Labour not for the meat
which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth
unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall
give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed."

3. Lastly, it is not an irregular, nor a selfolisturb-
ing vexatious violence that is required of us; but a
sweet well settled resolution, and a delightful expe-
ditious diligence, that make the wheels more easily

176 NOW OR NEVER.

get over those difficulties that clog and stop a sloth-
ful soul.

And now will you lend me the assistance of your
consciences, for the transcribing of this command of
God upon your hearts, and taking out a copy of this
order, for the regulating of your lives? Whatsoever
is not a work so comprehensive as to include any
vanity or sin; but so comprehensive as to include all
our duty.

1. To begin with the lowest: the very works of
your bodily callings must have diligence. " In the
sweat of your brows you must eat your bread." " Six
days shalt thou labour, and do all that thou hast to
do." " He that will not work, let him not eat."
Disorderly walkers, busybodies, that will not work
with quietness, and eat their own bread, are to be
avoided and shamed by the church. " For we hear
that there are some which walk among you disorder-
ly, working not at all, but are busybodies. Now
them that are such we command and exhort by our
Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and
eat their own bread." Lazy servants are unfaithful
to men and disobedient to God, who commandeth
them to " obey their masters according to the flesh,
(unbelieving, ungodly masters) in all things, (that
concern their service) and that not with eye-service,
as men-pleasers, but in singleness of heart, and in
the fear of God, do whatsoever they do as to the
Lord, and not unto men; knowing that of the Lord
(even for this) they shall receive the reward of the
inheritance." " But he that doth wrong (by sloth-
fulness, or unfaithfulness) shall receive for the wrong
which he hath done."

Success is Go^'s ordinary temporal reward of
diligence: "The hand of the diligent shall bear
rule: but the slothful shall be under tribute. The
slothful man roasteth not that which he took in
hunting: but the substance of a diligent man is pre-
cious." And diseases, poverty, shame, disappoint-
ment, or self-tormenting melancholy, are his usual

NOW OR NEVER. 177

punishments of sloth. Hard labour redeemeth time :
you will have the more to lay out on greater works :
the slothful is still behindhand, and therefore must
leave much of his work undone.

2. Are you parents or governors of families?
You have work to do for God, and for your chil-
dren and servants' souls. Do it with your might:
deal wisely, but seriously and frequently with them
about their sin, their duty, and their hopes of heav-
en; tell them whither they are going, and which way
they must go. Make them understand that they
have a higher Father and Master that must be first
served, and greater work than yours. Waken them
from their natural insensibility and sloth: turn not
all your family duties into lifeless customary forms;
whether extemporary, or by rote; speak about God,
and heaven, and hell, and holiness, with that serious-
ness which beseems men that believe what they say,
and would have those believe it to whom they speak.
Talk not either drowsily, or lightly, or jestingly of
such dreadful, or joyful, inexpressible things. Re-
member, that your families and you are going to
the grave, and to the world where there is no more
room for your exhortations. There is no catechis-
ing, examining, or serious instructing them in the
grave, whither they and you are going. — It must
be now or never: and therefore do it with your
might. " The words of God must be in your hearts,
and you must diligently teach them to your children,
talking of them when you sit in your houses, when
you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when
you rise up."

3. Have you ignorant or ungodly neighbours,
whose misery calls for your compassion and relief ?
Speak to them, and help them with prudent dili-
gence. Lose not your opportunities: stay not till
death hath stopped your mouths, or stopped their
ears. Stay not till they are out of hearing, or till
heaven be lost, before you have seriously called on
them to remember it. . Go to their houses: take all

178 NOW OR NEVER.

opportunities: stoop to their infirmities: bear with
unthankful frowardness; it is for men's salvation.
Remember there is no place for your instructions or
exhortations in the grave or hell. Your dust can-
not speak, and their dust cannot hear. Up, there-
fore, and be doing with all your might.

4. Hath God intrusted you with the riches of the
world; with many talents or with few, by which he
looketh you should relieve the needy, and especially
should promote those works of piety which are the
greatest charity? Give prudently, but willingly and
liberally, while you have to give. It is your gain :
the time of laying up a treasure in heaven, and fur-
thering your salvation by that winch hindereth
other men's, and occasioneth their perdition. " As
you have opportunity, do good to all men, but es-
pecially to them of the household faith." "Cast
thy bread upon the waters; for thou shalt fmd it
after many days. Give a portion to seven and to
eight; for thou knowest not what evil may be upon
the earth." " In the morning sow thy seed, and in
the evening withhold not thy hand : for thou know-
est not whether shall prosper, this or that, or wheth-
er they both shall be alike good." "Withhold not
good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the
power of thy hand to do it. Say not to thy neigh-
Dour, go and come again, and to-morrow I will give,
when thou hast it by thee." Lay up a foundation
for the time to come. Do good before thy heart be
hardened, thy riches blasted and consumed, thy op-
portunities taken away; part with it before it part
with thee. Remember it must be now or never.
There is no working in the grave.

5. Hath God intrusted you with power or inter-
est, by which you may promote his honour in the
world, and relieve the oppressed, and restrain the
rage of impious malice? Hath he made you govern-
ors, and put the sword of justice into your hands?
Up then and be doing with your might. Defend
the innocent, protect the servants of the Lord, cher-

NOW OR NEVER. 179

ish them that do well, be a terror to the wicked,
encourage the strictest obedience to the universal
Governor, discountenance the breakers of his laws.
Your trust is great, and so is your advantage to do
good; and how great will be your account, and how
dreadful, if you be unfaithful!

6. To come yet a little nearer to you, and speak
of the work that is yet to be done in your own souls;
are any of you yet in the state of unrenewed nature,
born only of the flesh, and not of the Spirit?
" Minding the things of the flesh, and not the things
of the Spirit," and consequently yet in the power of
Satan, taken captive by him at his will? Up and
be doing, if thou lovest thy soul. If thou carest
whether thou shalt be in joy or misery for ever, be-
wail thy sin and spiritual distress. Go to Christ,
cry mightily to him for his renewing, reconciling,
and pardoning grace. Plead his satisfaction, his
merits, and his promises; away with thy rebellion,
and thy beloved sin; deliver up thy soul entirely to
Christ, to be sanctified, governed and saved by him.
Make no more demurs; it is not a matter to be ques-
tioned, or trifled in. Let the earth be acquainted
with thy bended knees, and the air with thy com-
plaints and cries, and men with thy confessions and
inquiries after the way of life; and heaven with thy
sorrows, desires, and resolutions, till thy soul be ac-
quainted with the Spirit of Christ; and with the
new, the holy and heavenly nature, and thy heart
have received the transcript of God's law, the im-
press of the Gospel, and so the image of thy Crea-
tor and Redeemer. For there is no conversion, reno-
vation, or repentance unto life, in the grave whither
thou goest. It must be now or never. And never
saved if never sanctified: "Without holiness no
man shall see the Lord."

7. Hast thou any prevailing sin to mortify, that
either reigneth in thee, or woundeth thee and keep-
eth thy soul in darkness and unacquaintedness with
God ? Assault it resolutely; reject it speedily; abhor

180 NOW OR NEVER.

the motions of it; turn away from the persons or
things that would entice thee. Hate the doors of
the harlot and of the ale-house, or the gaming-house;
and go not as the "ox to the slaughter, and as a
hird to the fowler's snare, and as a fool to the correc-
tion of the stocks, as if thou knewest not that it is
for thy life." Why wilt thou be tasting of the poi-
soned cup? Wilt thou be sporting with the bait?
Hast thou no where to walk or play, but at the
brink of ruin? Must not the flesh be crucified, with
its "affections and lusts?" Must it not be tamed
and mortified, or thy soul condemned? " For if ye
live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through
the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall
live." Run not therefore as at uncertainty; fight
not as one " that beats the air." Seeing this must
be done, or thou art undone, delay and dally with
sin no longer. Let this be the day; resolve, and
resist it with thy might: it must be now or never:
when death comes it is too late.

8. Art thou in a declined, fallen state? Decayed
in grace? Hast thou lost thy first desires and love?
Do thy first works, and do them with thy might.
Delay not, but remember from whence thou art
fallen. Cry out with Job, " O that I were as in
months past; as in the days when God preserved
me! when his candle shined upon my head, and
when, by his light, I walked through darkness. As
I was in the days of my youth, when the secret of
God was on my tabernacle, when the Almighty was
yet with me." Return, while thou hast day, lest
the night surprise thee.

9. Art thou in the darkness of uncertainty con-
cerning thy conversion, and thy everlasting state?
Dost thou not know whether thou art in a state of
life or death? And what should become of thee,
if this were the day or hour of thy change? If thou
art careless in thy uncertainty, and mindest not so
great a business, be awakened, and call thy soul to
its account; search and examine thy heart and life;

NOW OR NEVER 181

read and consider, and take advice of faithful guides.
Canst thou carelessly sleep, and laugh, and sport,
and follow thy business, as if thy salvation were
made sure, when thou knowcst not where thou must
dwell for ever? " Examine yourselves whether you
be in the faith; prove yourselves; know ye not your
own selves, that Christ is in you, except ye be rep-
robates?" " Give all diligence to make your calling
and election sure." In the grave and hell there is no
making sure of heaven; you are then past inquiries
and self-examination, in order to any recovery or
hope. Another kind of trial will finally resolve you.
It must be now or never.

10. In all the duties of thy profession of piety,
justice, or chanty, to God, thyself, or others, up
and be doing with thy might. Art thou seeking to
inflame thy soul with love to God ? Plunge thyself
in the ocean of his love; admire his mercies; gaze
upon the representations of his transcendent good-
ness; " O taste and see that the Lord is gracious!"
Remember that he must be loved with all thy heart,
and soul, and might; canst thou pour out thy love
upon a creature, and give but a few barren drops
to God?

When thou art fearing, let his fear command thy
soul, and conquer all the fear of man. When thou
art trusting him, do it without distrust, and cast all
thy care and thyself upon him: trust him as a crea-
ture should trust his God, and the members of
Christ should trust their head and dear Redeemer.
When thou art making mention of his great and
dreadful name, O do it with reverence, and awe, and
admiration : and " take not the name of God in
vain !" When thou art reading his word, let the
majesty of the Author, and the greatness of the
matter, and the gravity of the style, possess thee
with an obedient fear. Love it, and let it be sweeter
to thee than the honey-comb, and more precious
than thousands of gold and silver. Resolve to do
what there thou findest to be the will of God.

182 NOW OR NEVER.

When thou art praying in secret, or in thy family,
"do it with thy might:'5 cry mightily to God, as a
soul under sin, wants, and danger, that is stepping
into an endless life, should do. Let the reverence
and the fervour of thy prayers, show that it is God
himself that thou art speaking to: that it is heaven
itself that thou art praying for; hell itself that thou
art praying to be saved from. Wilt thou be dull
and senseless on such an errand to the living God ?
Remember what lieth upon thy failing or prevailing:
and that it must be now or never.

Art thou a preacher of the gospel, and takest
charge of the souls of men? "Take heed to thy-
self and to the whole flock, over which the Holy
Ghost hath made thee an overseer, to feed the
church of God, which he hath purchased with his
own blood." Let not the blood of souls, and the
blood that purchased them, "be required at thy
hands." Thou art charged " before God, and the
Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and
the dead at his appearing, and his kingdom, that thou
preach his word: be instant in season, and out of
season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with all long-
suffering and doctrine." "Teach every man, and
exhort every man, — even night and day with tears."
" Save men with fear, pulling them out of the fire.
Cry aloud: lift up thy voice like a trumpet; tell them
of their transgressions." Yet thou art alive, and
they alive; yet thou hast a tongue, and they have
ears: the final sentence hath not yet cut off their
hopes. Preach, therefore, and preach with all thy
might. Exhort them, privately and personally,
with all the seriousness thou canst. Quickly, or it
will be too late; prudently, or Satan will overreach
thee; fervently, or thy words are likely to be disre-
garded. Remember, -when thou lookest them in
the faces, when thou beholdest the assemblies, that
they must be converted or condemned, sanctified on
earth, or tormented in hell; and that this is the day:
jt must be now or never.

NOW OR NEVER.

183

In a word, apply this, quickening precept to all
the duties of the Christian course. Be religious,
and just, and charitable, in good earnest, if you
would be taken for such when you look for the re-
ward. "Work out your salvation with fear and
trembling." " Strive to enter in at the strait gate;
tor many shall seek to enter, and shall not be able."
Many run, but few receive the prize: so run that
you may obtain. " If the righteous scarcely be
saved, where shall the ungodly and sinner appear?"
Let the doting world deride your diligence, and set
themselves to hinder and afflict you: it will be but a
little while before experience change their minds,
and make them talk differently. Follow Christ
fully: be diligent, and lose no time. The Judge is
coming. Let not words, nor any thing that man
can do, prevail with you to sit down, or stop you in
a journey of such importance. Please God, though
flesh, and friends, and all the world should be dis-
pleased. Whatever come of your reputation, or
estates, or liberties, or lives, be sure you look to life
eternal; and cast not that, on any hazard, for a
withering flower, or a pleasant dream, or a picture of
commodity, or any vanity that the Deceiver can pre-
sent. "For what shall it profit you, to win the
world, and lose your soul ?" Obey God, though all
the world forbid you. No power can save you from
his justice; and none of them can deprive you of
his reward. Though you lose your heads, you shall
save your crowns; you no way save your lives so
certainly, as by such losing them. One thing is ne-
cessary: do that with speed, and care, and diligence,
which must be done, or you are lost for ever. They
that are now against your much and earnest pray-
ing, will shortly cry as loud themselves in vain.
When it is too late, how fervently will they beg for
mercy, that now deride you for valuing and seeking
it in time ! But " then they shall call upon God, but
he will not answer; they shall seek him early, but
shall not find him : for that they hated knowledge,

184 NOW OR NEVER.

and did not choose the fear of the Lord: they would
none of his counsel, hut despised all his reproof."
Up, therefore, and work with all thy might. Let
unbelievers trifle, that know not that the righteous
God stands over them, and know not that they are
now to work for everlasting, and know not that hea-
ven or hell is at the end. Let them delay, and
laugn, and play, and dream away their time, that are
drunk with prosperity, and mad with fleshly lusts
and pleasures, and have lost their reason in the cares,
and delusions, and vain-glory of the world. But
shall it be so with thee, whose eyes are opened, who
seest the God, the heaven, the hell, which they do
but hear of as unlikely things? Wilt thou live
awake, as they that are asleep? Wilt thou do in
the day-light, as they do in the dark? Shall free-
men live as Satan's slaves? Shall the living lie as
still and useless as the dead? " Work then while it
is day; for the night is coming, when none can
work.55

But you will say, perhaps, ' Alas! what might
have we? We have no sufficiency of ourselves:
without Christ we can do nothing. And this we
find when it comes to the trial.5

1. I answer, It is not might that is originally
thine own, that I am calling thee to exercise; but
that which thou hast already received from God,
and that which he is ready to bestow. Use well
but all the might thou hast, and thou shalt find thy
labour is not in vain.

2. Art thou willing to use the might thou hast,
and to have more, and use it if thou hadst it? If
thou art, thou hast then the strength of Christ:
thou standest not, and workest not, by thy own
strength; his promise is engaged to thee, and his
strength is sufficient for thee. But if thou art not
willing, thou art without excuse; when thou hast
heaven and hell set open in the word of God to
make thee willing, God will distinguish thy wilful-
ness from unwilling weakness.

NOW OR NEVER. 185

3. There is more power in all of you than you
use, or than you are well aware of. It wanteth but
awakening to bring it into act. Do you not find, in
your repentings, that the change is more in your
will, than in your power? And in the awakening
of your will and reason into act, than in the addition
of mere abilities? And that therefore you befool
yourselves for your sins and your neglects, and won-
der that you had no more use of your understand-
ings? Let but a storm at sea, or violent sickness,
or approaching death, rouse up and awaken the
powers which you have, and you will find there was
much more asleep in you than you used.

I shall, therefore, next endeavour to awaken
your abilities, or tell you how you should awaken
them.

When your souls are drowsy, and you are forget-
ting your God, and your latter end, and matters of
eternity have little force and favour with you, when
you grow lazy and superficial, and religion seems a
lifeless thing, and you do your duty as if it were in
vain, or against your wills; when you can lose your
time, and delay repentance; and friends, and profit,
and reputation, and pleasure, can be heard against
the word of God, and take you off; when you do all
by halves, and languish in your Christian course, as
near to death — stir up your souls with the urgency
of such questions as these:1—

Question 1. Can I do no more than this for
God, who gave me all, who deserveth all? Who
seeth me in my duties and my sins? When he
puts me purposely on the trial, what can 1 do for
his sake and service? Can I do no more? Can 1
love him no more, and obey, and watch, and work

no more.'

Question 2. Can I do no more than this for
Christ? For him that did so much for me? That
obeyed so perfectly; walked so meekly; despising all
the baits, and honours, and riches of the world ?
That loved me to the death; and offereth me freelv
16

186 NOW OR NEVER.

all his benefits, and would bring me to eternal glory?
Are these careless, cold, and dull endeavours, my
best return for all his mercy?

Questiori 3. Can I do no more, when my salvation
is the prize? when heaven or hell depends upon it?
When 1 know this beforehand, and may see, in the
glass of the Holy Scriptures, what is prepared for
the diligent and the negligent, and Avhat work there
is, and will he for ever, in heaven and hell, on these
accounts? Could I not do more, if my house were
on fire, or my estate, or life, or friend, in danger,
than I do for my salvation?

Question 4. Can I do no more for the souls of
men; when they are undone for ever if they be not
speedily delivered? Is this my love and compas-
sion to my neighbour, my servant, friend, or child?

Question 5. Can I do no more for the Church of
God? for the public good? for the peace and wel-
fare of the nation, and our posterity? in suppressing
sin? in praying for deliverance? or in promoting
works of public benefit?

Question 6. Can I do no more, that have loit-
ered so long? and go no faster, that have slept till
the evening of my days, when diligence must be
the discovery of my repentance ?

Question 7. Can I do no more, that know not
now but I am doing my last? that see how fast my
time makes haste, and know I must be quickly
gone? that know it must be now or never.

Question 8. Can I do no better, when I know
beforehand what a vexatious and heart-disquieting
thing it will then be, to look back on time as irre-
coverably,, lost, and on a life of trial as cast away
upon impertinences, while the work that we Jived
for lay undone! Shall I now, by trilling, pre-
pare such tormenting thoughts for my awakened
conscience?

Question 9. Can I do no more, when I am sure
I cannot do too much, and am sure there is nothing
else to be preferred ?

NOW OR NEVER. 137

Question 10. Can I do no more, that have so
much help? that have mercies of all sorts encourag-
ing me, and creatures attending me ; that have
health to enable me, or affliction to remember and
excite me; that have such a master, such a work,
such a reward ? who is less excusable for neglect
than I?

Question 11. Could I do no more, if I were sure
that my salvation lay on this one duty? that, accord-
ing to this prayer, it should go with me for ever ?
or if the soul of my child, or servant, or neighbour,
must speed for ever, as my endeavours speed with
them now for their conversion? For ought 1 know,
it may be thus.

By this time you may see what difference there
is between the judgment of God and of the world;
and what to think of the understandings of those
men, be they high or low, learned or unlearned,
who hate or oppose this holy diligence. God bids
us love, and seek, and serve him, with ail our heart,
and soul, and might : and these men call them Zeal-
ots and Puritans that endeavour it; though, alas!
they fall exceedingly short, when they have done
their best. It is one of the most wonderful, mon-
strous deformities that ever befell the nature of man;
that men, learned men — that men who in other
things are wise, should seriously think that the ut-
most diligence to obey the Lord, and save our souls,
is needless; and that ever they should take it for a
crime, and make it a matter of reproach: that the
serious, diligent obeying of God's laws, should be
the matter of the common disdain and hatred of the
world. It is not in vain that the Holy Ghost saith,
" Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you;"
implying, that we are apt to marvel at it; as 1 con-
fess I have oft and greatly done. Methinks, it is
so wonderful a plague and stain in nature, that
it doth very much to confirm me of the truth of
Scripture; of the doctrine of man's fall and origin-

183 NOW OR NEVER.

al sin, and the necessity of a Reconciler, and of
renewing grace.

Look upwards, sirs, and. think whether heaven be
worth our labour. Look downwards, and think
whether earth be more worthy of it. Lay up your
treasures where you must dwell for ever. If that
be here, then scrape, and flatter, and get all that
you can : but if it be not here, but in another life,
then hearken to your Lord, and lay up for yourselves
a treasure in heaven, and there let your very hearts
be set. And, upon the peril of everlasting misery,
hearken not to any man that will tempt you from a
diligent holy life. It is a serious business, deal se-
riously in it; and be not laughed or mocked out of
heaven.

All the commands, and promises, andthreatenings
of God, the most powerful preaching that, as it were,
sets open heaven and hell, do not prevail with fleshly
men, to leave the most sordid and unmanly sin: and
shall the words or frowns of creeping dust prevail
with thee against the work for which thou livest in
the world, when thou hast still at hand unanswer-
able arguments from God, from thyself, from heaven
and hell, to put thee on? Were it but for thy life,
or the life of thy children, friend, yea, or enemy, or
for the quenching of a fire in thy house, or in the
town, wouldst thou not stir and do thy best? And
wilt thou be idle when eternal life lies on it? Let
Satan roar against thee by his instruments. Let
sinners talk awhile of they know not what, till God
hath made them change their note. These are not
matters for a man to observe, that is engaged lor
an endless life. O what are these to the things that
thou art called to prosecute? Hold on then, Chris-
tians, in the work that you have begun. Do it pru-
dently, and do it universally. Take it together,
works of piety, justice, and charity: but do it now
without delay, and do it seriously with your might.
I know not what cloud of darkness hath seized on

NOW OR NEVER. 189

those men's minds that speak against this, or what
deadly damp hath seized on their hearts, that hath
so henumbed and unmanned them.

For my own part, though I have long lived in a
sense of the preciousness of time, and have not
been wholly idle in the world; yet, when I have
the deepest thoughts of the great everlasting con-
sequence of my work, and of the uncertainty and
shortness of my time, I am even amazed to think
that my heart can be so slow and senseless, as to do
no more in such a case. The Lord knows, and my
conscience knows, that my slothfulness is so much
my shame and admiration, that I am astonished to
think that my resolutions are no stronger, my affec-
tions no livelier, and my labour and diligence no
greater, when God is the commander, and his love
the encourager, and his wrath the spur, and heaven
or hell must be the issue. O, what lives should all
of us live, that have things of such unspeakable
consequence on our hands, if our hearts were not
almost dead within us ! Let who will speak against
such a life, it shall be my daily grief and moan,
that I am so dull, and do so little. I know that
our works do not profit the Almighty, nor bear any
proportion with his reward; nor can they stand in
his sight, but as accepted in the Lord our right-
eousness, and perfumed by the odour of his merits.
But I know they are necessary, and they are sweet.
Without the holy employment of our faculties, this
life will be but a burden or a dream, and the next
an inexpressible misery. O, therefore, that I had
more of the love of God, that my soul could get
but nearer to him, and move more swiftly upward
by faith and love ! O that I had more of holy life,
and active diligence, though I had with it the scorns
of all about me, and though they made me, as they
once did better men, " as the filth of the world, and
the off-scouring of all things!" O that I had more
of this derided diligence, and holy converse with the
Lord, though " my name was cast out as an evil

190

NOW OR NEVER.

doer," and I were spit at and buffeted by those that
do now but secretly reproach ! Might I more close-
ly follow Christ in holiness, why should I grudge to
bear his cross, and to be used as he was used?
Knowing, that "if we suffer with him, we shall al-
so reign with him; and the sufferings of this present
time are not worthy to be compared with the glory
which shall be revealed in us."

Alas, sirs! it is nothing but intoxicating pros-
perity, and sensual delights, and worldly diversions,
that make you think well of ungodly slothfulness,
and make you think contemptuously of a heavenly
life. There is not the boldest infidel in the world, nor
the bitterest enemy to holiness, but shortly would
wish they had rather been saints, with all the scorn
and cruelty that malice can inflict on such, than to
have braved it out in pride and gallantry, with the
neglect of everlasting things.

Methinks I even see how you will passionately
rage against yourselves, and tear your hearts with
self-revenge, (if grace prevent it not by a safe re-
pentance,) wnen you think too late how you lived
on earth, and wThat golden times of grace you lost,
and vilified all that would not lose them as foolishly
as you. If repentance unto life made St. Paul call
himself foolish, disobedient, deceived, and exceeding
mad, (Tit. iii. 3. Acts xxvi. 11.) you may imagine
how tormenting repentance will make you call your-
selves too late.

O sirs! you cannot now conceive, what different
thoughts will then possess you of a holy and unholy
life. How mad you will think them that had but
one life's time of preparation for eternal life, and
desperately neglected it! And how sensible you
will then be of the wisdom of believers, that knew
their time, and used it while they had it ! "Now
wisdom is justified of all her children;'5 but then
how sensibly will it be justified of all its enemies !
O, with what remorse will undone souls look back
on a life of mercy and opportunities, thus basely

NOW OR NEVER. 191

undervalued, and slept away in dreaming idleness,
and fooled away for things or nought !

The language of that rich man, Luke xvi. may
help you in your predictions. O how will you won-
der at yourselves, that ever you could be so blind
and senseless, as to be no more affected with the
warnings of the Lord, and with the forethoughts of
everlasting joy and misery! To have but one small
part of time to do all that ever must be done by
you for eternity, and say all that ever you must say,
ibr your own or others' souls, and that this was spent
in worse than nothing ! To have but one uncertain
life, in which you must run the race that wins or
loses heaven for ever; and that you should he tempted
with a thing of nought, to lose that one irrecoverable
opportunity, and to sit still or run another way, when
you should have been making haste with all your
might! O sirs, the thoughts of this will be other
kind of thoughts another day than now you feel
them; you cannot now think how the thoughts of
this will then affect you ! That you had a time in
which you might have prayed, with promise of ac-
ceptance, and had no hearts to take that time ! That
Christ was offered to you as well as he was offered
to them that entertained him; that you are called
on, and warned as well as they, but obstinately des-
pised and neglected all! That life and death were
set before you, and the everlasting joys were offered
to your choice, against the charms of sinful pleasures,
and you might have freely had them if you would,
and Were told that holiness was the only way, and
that it must be now or never, and yet that you chose
your own destruction ! These thoughts will be part
of hell to the ungodly. They will wonder that rea-
son could be so unreasonable; and that they, who
had the common wit of man in other matters, should
be so far beside themselves in that which is the only
thing that is commendable to be wise for; that such
reasonings should prevail with them against the
clearest light, and nothing should be preferred before

192 NOW OR NEV*.R.

all things, and arguments fetched from chaff should
conquer those that were fetched from heaven ! O
what heart-rending thoughts will these be, when
eternity shall afford them leisure for an impartial
review !

Come away speedily from the snares of sin-
ners, and the company of deceived hardened men,
and cast away the works of darkness. Heaven is
before you ! Death is at hand ! The eternal God
hath sent to call you ! Mercy doth yet stretch forth
its arms! You have stayed too long, and abused
patience too much already: stay no longer! O now
please God, and comfort us, and save yourselves,
by resolving that " this shall be the day:" and faith-
fully performing this your resolution, " up and be
doing:" believe, repent, desire, obey, and do all this
with all your might; love him that you must love for
ever, and love him with all your soul and might; seek
that which is truly worth seeking, and will pay for
all your cost and pains, and seek it first with all your
might, remembering still it must be now or never.
And now I should conclude, I am loath to end,
for fear lest I have not yet prevailed with you.
What are you now resolved to do, from this day
forward ? It is work that we have been speaking
of, and necessary work of endless consequence,
which must be done, and quickly done, and thorough-
ly done. Are you not convinced that it is so? that
ploughing and sowing are not more necessary to
your harvest, than the work of holiness in this day
of grace is necessary to your salvation? You are
blind, if ypu see not this: you are dead, if you feel it
not: what then will you do? O hear the God of
heaven, if you will not hear us, who calleth to you,
Return, and live ! O hear him that shed his blood
for souls, and tendereth you now salvation by his
blood! O hear without any more delay, before all
is gone, and you are gone, and he that now deceiv-
eth you, torment you ! Yet hold on a little longer
in a carnal, earthly, unsanctih'ed state, and it is too

NOW OR NEVER. 193

late to hope, or pray, or strive for your salvation.
Yet a little longer, and mercy will have done with
you for ever; and Christ will never invite you more,
nor ever offer to cleanse you by his blood; nor sanc-
tify you by his Spirit. Yet a little longer, and you
shall never hear a sermon more, and never more be
troubled with those preachers that were in good ear-
nest with yon, and longed once for your conversion
and salvation. O sleepy, dead-hearted sinners, what
should I do to show you how near you stand to eter-
nity, and what is now doing in the world that you
are going to, and how these things are thought on
there! What should I do to make you know how
time is valued, how sin and holiness are esteemed in
the world where you must live for ever! What
should I do to make you know those things to-day,
which I will not thank you to know when you are
gone hence ! O that the Lord would open your eyes
in time ! O that I could but make you know these
things as believers should know them ! I say not as
those that see them, nor yet as dreamers, that do
not regard them, but as those that believe that they
must shortly see them, what a joyful hour's work
should I esteem this ! how happy would it be to you
and me ! If every word were accompanied with
tears; if this sermon cost me as many censures or
slanders as ever sermon did, I should not think it too
dear, if I could but help you to such a sight of the
things we speak of, that you might truly understand
them as they are: that you had but a true awakened
apprehension of the shortness of your day, of the
nearness of eternity, and of the endless consequence
of your present work, and what holy labour and sin-
ful loitering will be thought of in the world to come
for ever. But when we see you sin, and trifle, and
no more regard your endless life, and see also what
haste your time is making, and yet cannot make you
understand these things; when we know ourselves
as sure as we speak to tju, that you will shortly be
astonished at the review of your present sloth and
17

194 NOW OR NEVER

folly, and when we know that these matters are not
thought of in another world, as they are among
sleepy sinners here, and yet know not how to make
you know it, whom it doth so exceedingly much
concern, this amazeth us, and almost breaks our
hearts, lea, when we tell you of things that are
past doubt, and can be no further matter of contro-
versy, than men have sold their understandings, and
betrayed their reason to their sordid lusts, and yet
we cannot get reasonable men to know that which
they cannot choose but know, to know that serious-
ly and practically which always hath a witness in
their breasts, and which none but the profligate dare
deny; this, even this, is worse than a prison to us.
It is you that are our persecutors; it is you that are
the daily sorrow of our hearts; it is you that disap-
point us of our hopes, and make us lose so much of
the labour of our lives.

Sinners, whatever the devil and raging passion
may say against a holy life, God and your own con-
sciences shall be our witnesses, that we desired
nothing unreasonable, or unnecessary at your hands.

The question that I am putting to you, is not
whether you will be for this form of church-govern-
ment, or fbr that; but it is, whether you will heark-
en in time to God and conscience, and be as busy to
provide fbr heaven, as ever you have been to pro-
vide for earth? It is godliness, serious and practical
godliness, that thou art called to. It is nothing but
what all Christians in the world are agreed in.
That 1 may not leave thee in any darkness which I
can deliver thee from, I will tell thee distinctly,
though succinctly, what it is that thou art thus im-
portuned to; and tell me, then, whether it be that
which any Christian can make doubt of.

1. That which I entreat of thee, is but to live
as one that verily believeth there is a God; and that
this God is the Creator, the Lord and Ruler of the
world: and that it is incomparably more our business
to understand and obey nis laws, and as faithful
subjects to be conformed to them, than to observe

NOW OR NEVER. 195

or be conformed to the laws of man: and to live as
men that do believe that this God is Almighty, and
that the greatest of men are less than crawling
worms to him; and that he is infinitely wise, and the
wisdom of man is foolishness to him; and that he is
"infinitely good and amiable; that his love is the only
felicity of man; and that none are happy but those
that do enjoy it; and none that do enjoy it can be
miserable; and that riches, and honour, and fleshly
delights are brutish vanities in comparison of the
eternal love of God. Live but as men that heartily
believe all this, and I have that I come for; and is
any of this a matter of controversy or doubt? Not
among Christians I am sure: not among wise men.
It is no doubt to those in heaven, nor to those in
hell, nor to those that have not lost their under-
standings upon earth. Live then according to these
truths.

2. Live as men that verily believe that mankind
is fallen into sin and misery; and that all men are
corrupted, and under the condemnation of the law
of God, till they are delivered, pardoned, reconciled
to God, and made new creatures, by a renewing,
restoring, sanctifying change. Live but as men
that believe that this cure must be wrought, and this
great restoring change must be made upon ourselves,
if it be not done already. Live as men that have
so great a work to look after; and is this a matter of
any doubt or controversy? Sure it is not to a Chris-
tian: and methinks it should not be to any man else
that knoweth himself, any more than to a man in a
dropsy, whether he be diseased, when he feels the
thirst and sees the swelling. Did you but know
what cures and changes are necessarily to be made
upon your diseased miserable souls, if you care
what becomes of them, you would soon see cause to
look about you.

3. Live but as men that verily believe that the
Son of God, hath suffered for your sins,,and brought
you the tidings of pardon and salvation, which you
may have, if you will give up yourselves to him

196 NOW OR NEVER.

who is the Physician of souls, to be healed by him.
Live as men that believe that the infinite love of
God, revealed to lost mankind in the Redeemer, doth
bind us to Jove .him with all our hearts, and serve
him with all our restored faculties, and to work as
those that have the greatest thankfulness to show,
as well as the greatest mercies to receive, and mis-
ery to escape: and as those that believe, that if sin-
ners that, without Christ, had not hope, shall now
love their sins and refuse to leave them, and to
repent and be converted, and unthankfully reject
the mercy of salvation so dearly bought, and freely
offered them, their damnation will be doubled as
their sin is doubled.

Live but as men that have such redemption to
admire, such mercy to entertain, and such a salva-
tion to attain, and that are sure they can never
escape if they continue to " neglect so great salva-
tion.33 And is there any controversy among Chris-
tians in any of this ? There is not, certainly.

4. Live but as men that believe that the Holy
Ghost is given by Jesus Christ to convert, to quick-
en, and to sanctify all that he will save; that
" except you be born again of the Spirit, you shall
not enter into the kingdom of heaven;33 and that
" if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, the same
is none of his;33 and that without this, no mending
of your lives, by any common principles, will serve
the turn for your salvation, or make you acceptable
to God. Live as men that believe that this Spirit
is given by the hearing of the word of God, and
must be prayed for, and obeyed, and not resisted,
quenched, and grieved. And is there any contro-
versy among Christians in any of this?

5. Live but as men that believe that sin is the
greatest evil, the thing which the holy God abhor-
reth; and then you will never make a mock of it, as
Solomon saith the foolish do; nor say, What harm
is in it?

6. Live but as men that believe no sin is pardon-
ed without repentance; and that repentance is the

NOW OR NEVER. 197

loathing and forsaking of sin: and that if it be
true, it will not suffer you to live in any sin, nor to
desire to keep the least infirmity, nor to be loath to
know your unknown sins.

7. Live as those that believe that you are to be
members of the Holy Catholic Church, and therein
co hold the communion of saints. And then you
will know that it is not as a member of any sect or
party, but as a holy member of this holy church,
that you must be saved : and that it is the name of
a Christian, which is more honourable than the name
of any division, or subdivision among Christians.

8. Live as those that believe that there is a life
everlasting, where the sanctified shall live in endless
joy, and the unsanctified in endless punishment and
wo : live but as men that verily believe a heaven
and a hell, and a day of judgment, in which all the
actions of this life must be revised, and all men
judged to their endless state. Believe these things
heartily, and then think a holy diligence needless if
you can. Then be of the mind of the deriders and
enemies of godliness if you can. If one sight of
heaven or hell would serve without any more ado,
instead of other arguments, to confute all the cavils
of the distracted world, and to justify the most dili-
gent saints in the judgment of those that now abhor
them, why should not a sound belief of the same
thing in its measure do the same?

9. Live but as those that believe this life is given
us as the only time to make preparation for eternal
life: and that all that ever shall be done for your sal-
vation, must be now, just now, before your time is
ended: live as those that know, and need not faith
to tell them, that this time is short, and almost at an
end already, and stayeth for no man, but, as a post,
doth haste away. It will not stay while you are
taken up at stage plays, in compliments, in idle
visits, or any impertinent, needless things: it will
not tarry while you spend yet the other year, or
month, or day, in your worldliness, or ambition, or
in your lusts and sensual delights, and put off your

198 NOW OR NEVER.

repentance to another time. O sirs, for the Lord's
sake, do but live as men that must shortly be buried
in the grave, and their souls appear before the Lord,
and as men that have but this little time to do all
*br their everlasting life, that ever must be done.
O live as men that are sure to die, and are not sure
xo live till to-morrow: and let not the noise of
pleasure or worldly business, or the chat or scorns
of miserable fools, bear down your reason, and make
you live as if you knew not what you know; or as
if there was any doubt about these things. Who
is the man and what is his name, that dares contra-
dict them, and can make it good? O do not sin
against your knowledge: do not stand still and
see your glass running, and time making such haste,
and yet make no more haste yourselves, than if you
were not concerned in it : do not, O do not slum-
ber, when time and judgment never slumber; nor
sit still when you have so much to do, and know all
that is now left undone must be undone for ever !
Alas, sirs, how many questions of exceeding weight
have you yet to be resolved in! whether you are
truly sanctified? whether your sins be pardoned?
whether you shall be saved when you die ? whether
you are ready to leave this world and enter upon
another? I tell you, the answering of these and
many more such questions, is a matter of no small
difficulty or concern. And all these must be done
in this little and uncertain time. It must be now
or never. Live but as men that believe and con-
sider these certain unquestionable things.

10. Lastly, Will you but live as men that be-
lieve that the world and the flesh are the deadly
enemies of your salvation? and that believe, that
" if any man love the world, (so far) the love of the
Father is not in him?" and as men that believe
that, "if ye live after the flesh ye shall die; but if
by the Spirit ye mortify the deeds of the body, ye
shall live; " and that those who are in Christ Jesus,
and are freed from condenmat ion, are such as " walk
not after the flesh, but after the Spirit? " And that

NOW OR NEVER. 199

we must " make no provision for the flesh to satisfy
the will or lusts thereof; " and must not " walk in
gluttony and drunkenness, in chambering and wan
tonness, in strife and envying," but must " have our
hearts where our treasure is," and our conversation
in heaven; and being risen with Christ, must seek
the things that are above, and set our affections on
them, and not on the things that are on earth.

Sirs, will you say that any of this is our singular
opinion, or matter of controversy and doubt? Are
not all Christians agreed in it? Do you not, your
ownselves profess that you believe it? Live then
but as those that do believe it, and condemn not
yourselves in the things that you confess.

I have done my part to open to you the necessity
of serious diligence, and to call up the sluggish souls
of sinners to mind the work of their salvation, and
to do it speedily, and with all their might. I must
now leave the success to God and you. What use
you will make of it, and what you will be and do
for the time to come, is a matter that more concern-
eth yourselves than me.

Sirs, the matter is now laid before you. What
will you now do ? Have I convinced you now, that
God and your salvation are to be sought with all
your might? If I have not, it is not for want of evi-
dence in what, is said, but for want of willingness in
yourselves to know the truth.

It is wonderful, to think that learned men, and
gentlemen, and men, that pretend to reason and in-
genuity, can quietly betray their souls, and do the
evil that they have no more to say for, and neglect,
that duty that they have no more to say agains',
when they know they must do it now or never.
That while they confess that there is a God, an/ a
life to come, a heaven and a hell, and that this life
is purposely given us lor preparation for eternity,
while they confess that God is most wise, and holy,
and good, and just, and that sin is the greatest evil,
and that the word of God is true, they can yet make
shift to quiet themselves in an unholy, sensual, care-

200 NOW OR NEVER.

less lif j; and that while they honour the apostles
and martyrs, and saints that are dead and gone, they
hate t leir successors and imitators, and the lives
that tl ey lived.

Alas ! all this comes from the want of a sound
belief f the things which they never saw; and the
distance of those things, and the power of passion,
and sensual objects and inclinations, that hurry them
away after present vanities, and conquer reason, and
rob them of their humanity; and from the noise of
the company of sensual sinners, that harden and
deafen one another, and by the just judgment of God
forsaking those that would not know him, and leav-
ing them to the blindness and hardness of their
hearts. But is there no remedy? O Thou, the
Fountain of mercy and relief, vouchsafe these mise-
rable sinners a remedy ! O Thou, the Saviour of lost
mankind, have mercy upon these sinners in the depth
of their security, presumption, and misery! O Thou,
the Illuminator and Sanctifier of souls, apply the
remedy so dearly purchased !

Poor sleepy sinners, hear us ! Though we speak
not to you as men would do that had seen heaven
and hell; and were themselves in a perfectly awak-
ened frame, yet hear us while we speak to you the
words of truth, with some seriousness, and com-
passionate desire for your salvation. O look up to
your God ! Look out unto eternity : Look inwardly
upon your souls: Look wisely upon your short and
hasty time: and then bethink you how the little
remnant of your time should be employed; and what
it is that most concerneth you to despatch and secure
before you die. Now you have sermons, and books,
and warnings: it will not be so long. Preachers
must have done: God threateneth them, and death
threateneth them, and men threaten them, and it is
you, it is you that are most severely threatened, and
that are called on by God's warnings. " If any
man have an ear to hear, let him hear." Now you
have abundance of private helps, you have abun-
dance of understanding gracious companions; yor

NOW OR NEVER. 201

have the Lord's day to spend iR holy exercises, fo*
the edification and solace of your souls ; you have
choice of sound and serious books : O what invalu-
able mercies are all these ! O know your time, and
use these with industry, and improve this harvest
for your souls! For it will not be thus always: it
must be now or never. You have yet time and
leave to pray and cry to God in hope : yet if you
have hearts and tongues, he hath a hearing ear; the
Spirit of grace is ready to assist you. It will not be
thus always : the time is coming when the loudest
cries will do no good. O pray, pray, pray, poor
need}'- miserable sinners; for it must be now or never.

You have yet health and strength, and bodies fit
to serve your souls: it will not be so always: lan-
guishing, and pains, and death are coming. O use
your health and strength for God; for it must be
wow or never.

Yet there are some stirrings of conviction in your
consciences: you find that all is not well with you;
and you have some thoughts or purposes to repent
and be new creatures. There is some hope in this,
that yet God hath not quite forsaken you. O trifle
not, and stifle not the convictions of your conscien-
ces, but hearken to the witness of God within you.
It must be now or never.

Would you not be loath to be left to the despair-
ing case of many poor distressed souls, that cry out,
4 O it is now too late! I fear my day of grace is past;
God will not hear me now if I should call upon him :
he hath forsaken me, and given me over to myself.
It is too late to repent, too late to pray, too late to
think of a new life; all is too late.' This case is sad;
but yet many of these are in a safer and better case
than they imagine, and are but frightened by the
Tempter : and it is not too late, while they cry out,
'It is too late;' but if you are left to cry in hell, ' It
is too late;' alas, how long and how doleful a cry
and lamentation will it be !

O consider, poor sinner, that God knoweth the
time and season of thy mercies. He giveth the

202 NOW OR NEVER.

spring and harvest in their season; and all his mer-
cies in their season, and wilt thou not know thy time
and season, or love, and duty, and thanks to him?
Consider that God, who hath commanded thee
thy work, hath also appointed thee thy time. And
this is his appointed time. To-day, therefore, heark-
en to his voice, and see that thou harden not thy
heart. He that bids thee " repent and work out
thy salvation with fear and trembling,55 doth also bid
thee do it now. Obey him in the time, if thou wilt
be indeed obedient; he best understand eth the fit-
test time. One would think to men that have lost
so much already, and loitered so long, and are so
lamentably behind hand, and stand so near the bar
of God, and their everlasting state, there should be
no need to say any more, to persuade them to be up
and doing. I shall add but this: 'You are never
like to have a better time.5 Take this, or the work
will grow more difficult, more doubtful, if through
the just judgment of God, it become not desperate.
If all this will not serve, but still you will loiter till
time be gone, what can your poor friends do but
lament your misery! The Lord knows, if we knew
what words, what pains, what cost would tend to
your awakening, and conversion, and salvation, we
should be glad to submit to it: and we hope we
should not think our labours, or liberties, or our
lives too dear to promote so blessed and so necessary
a work. But if when all this is done that we can
do, you will leave us nothing but our tears and
moans for self-destroyers, the sin is yours, and the
suffering shall be yours. If I can do no more, I
shall leave this upon record, that we took our time
to tell you, that serious diligence is necessary to
your salvation; and that God is the " Rewarder of
them that diligently seek him,55 and that this was
your day, your only day. It must be now or never ,

FIFTY REASONS

WHY A SINNER OUGHT TO TURN TO GOD
WITHOUT DELAY.

[With some abridgement.]

HEBREWS III. 7, 8.

To-day t if ye will hear his voice, harden not your

hearts.

1 ^Consider to whom it is that you are com-
manded to turn ; and then Aei\ me whether there
can be any reason for delayer It is not to an empty
deceitful creature, but to the faithful all-sufficient
God; to Him that is the cause of all things; the
strength of the creation; the joy of angels; the
felicity of the saints; the sun and shield of all the £
righteous; the refuge ofthe distressed; and the^jj
glory of the whole world^jfcf such power, that his r
word can take down the sun from the firmament,
and turn the earth and all things into nothing; for
he doth more in giving them their being and con-
tinuance: of such wisdom, that he was never guilty
of mistake; and therefore will not mislead you, nor
draw you to any thing that is not for the best: of v
such goodness, as that evil cannot stand in his sight, /
and nothing but your evil could make him displeas- p
ed with you; and it is from, nothing but evil, that he

*

V

204 FIFTY REASONS.

calleth you to turn. It is not to a malicious ene-
my, that would do you mischief, but to a gracious
God, that is love itself; not to an implacable jus-
tice, but to a reconciled Father; not to revenging
indignation, but to the embrace of those arms, and
the mercy of that compassionate Lord, that is
enough to melt the hardest heart, when you find
yourself, as the poor returning prodigal, in his bo-
som, when you deserved to have been under his
feet. And will the. great and blessed^GoiL in\dte
thee to his favour^ and wilt thou delav and_denmr
upon the return? The greatest of the angels of
('(heaven are glad of his favour, and value no happi-
jness but the light of his countenance. Heaven
^and earth are supported by.hkn, and nothing can
/stand without him. How glad would those very

I' devils be of his favour, that tempt thee to neglect
his favour ! And wilt thou delay to turn to such a
God? Why, man, thou art every minute at his
mercy. And yet dost thou delay? There are all
"^things imaginable in him to draw thee. There is
nothing that is good fbr thee, but it is perfectly in
him, where thou mayst have it certain and perpet-
ual. There is nothing in him to give the least dis-
couragement: let all the devils in hell, and all the
enemies of God on earth, say the worst they can
against his majesty, and they are not able to find
the smallest blemish in his absolute holiness, and
wisdom, and goodness. And yet wilt thou delay
to return?

2. Consider also, to what it is that thou must
turn. Not to uncleanness, but to holiness; not to
the sensual life of a beast, but to the noble rational
life of a man, and the more noble heavenly life of
a Christian; not to an unprofitable worldly toil, but
to the most gainful employment that ever the sons
of men were acq uainted with; not to the deceitful
drudgery of sin, but to that godliness which is pro-
fitable to all things, " having the promise of the
life that now is, and of that which is to come'

FIFTY REASONS. 205

Sirs, do you know what a life of holiness is ? You
do not know it, if you turn away from it. I am
sure, if you knew it you would never fly from it.
No, norendure to live without it. Why, a life of
holiness is nothing but living unto God; to be con-
versant with him, as the wicked are with the world;
and to be devoted to his service, as sensualists are
to the flesh. It is to live in the love of God, and
of our Redeemer; and in the foretastes of his ever-
lasting glory, and of his love; and in the sweet fore-
thoughts of that blessed life that shall never end;
and in the honest self-denying course that leadeth
to that blessedness. A godly life is nothing else
but a sowing the seed of heaven on earth; and a
learning, in the school of Christ, the songs of praise
which we must use before the throne of God; and
by suffering, — a learning how to triumph and reign
with Christ.

Can you delay to come into your Father's fa-
mily; into the vineyard of the Lord; into the
kingdom of God on earth; to be " fellow-citizens
of the saints, and of the household of God;" to
have the pardon of all your sms, and the sealed pro-
mise of everlasting glory ? Why, sirs, when you
are called on to turn, you are called to the porch of
heaven, into the beginning of salvation; and will
you delay to accept everlasting life?

3. Consider also, From what you are called to
turn; and then judge whether there be any reason
of delay. It is from the devil, your enemy; from
the love of a deceitful world; from the seductions of
corrupted brutish flesh; it is from sin the greatest
evil. What is there in sin that you should delay to
part with it? Is there any good in it? Or what
hath it ever done for you that you should love it?
Did it ever do you good ? Or did it ever do any
man good ? It is the deadly enemy of Christ and
you, that caused his death, and will cause yours,
and is working for your condemnation, if converting
and pardoning grace. prevent it not. And are you

206 FIFTY REASONS.

loath to leave it ? It is the cause of all the miseries
of the world, of all the sorrows that ever did befall
you, and the cause of the damnation of them that
perish; and do you delay to part with it?

4. Your delaying shows that you love not God,
and that you prefer your sin before him, and thai
you would never part with it if you could have your
will. For if you loved God, you would long to be
restored to his favour, and to be near him, and em-
ployed in his service and his family. Love is quick
and diligent, and will not draw back. And it is a
sign also that you are in love with sin: for else,
why should you be so loath to leave it? He that
would not leave his sin and turn to God, till the
next week, or the next month, or year, would never
turn if he might have his desire. For that which
makes you desirous to stay a day or a week longer,
doth indeed make you loath to turn at all. And
therefore it is but hypocrisy to say, that you are
willing to turn hereafter, if you are not willing to do
it now without delay.

5. Consider, what a case you are in, while you
thus delay? Do you think you stand in a safe
condition? If you knew where you are, you would
sit as upon thorns as long as you are unconverted;
you would be as a man that stood up to the knees in
the sea, and saw the tide coming towards him, who
certainly would think that there is no standing still
in such a place. You have all your sin unpardoned;
you are under the curse of the law; the wrath of
God is upon you, and the fulness of it hangs over
your heads; judgment is coming to pass upon you
the dreadful doom; the Lord is at hand; death is at
the door, and waits but for the word from the
mouth of God, that it may arrest you, and bring

l you to everlasting misery: and is this a state for a
k>C\man to continue in?

6. Moreover, Your delaying giveth great advan-
tage to the Tempter. If you would presently turn
and forsake your sins, and enter into a faithful cove-

FIFTY REASONS. 207

nanl with God, the devil would be almost out of
hope, and the very heart of his temptations would be
broken. He would see that now it is too late;
there is no getting you out of the arms of Christ.
But as long as you delay, you keep him in heart and
hope; he hath time to strengthen his prison and
fetters, and to renew his snares; and if one temp-
tation serve not, he hath time to try another and
another; as if you would stand as a mark for Satan
to shoot at, as long as he pleases. What likelihood
is there that ever so foolish a sinner should be re-
covered and saved from his sin ?

7. Moreover, Your delaying is a vile abuse of
Christ and the Holy Ghost, and may so far provoke
him, as to leave you to yourself, and then you are
past help. If you delight so to trample on your
crucified Lord, and will so long put him to it by re-
fusing his grace and grieving his Spirit, what can
you expect but that he should turn away in wrath,
and utterly forsake you.

8. Consider also, I beseech you, If you ever
mean to turn, what it is that you stay for. Do
you think to bring down Christ and heaven to your
own terms, and to be saved hereafter with less ado ?
Sure, you cannot be so foolish: for God will be
still the same; and Christ the same; and his pro-
mise hath still the same condition, which he will
never change; and godliness will be the same, and
as much against your carnal interest hereafter as it
is now. When you have looked about you ever so
long, you will never find a fairer or nearer way; but
this same way you must go or perish. If you can-
not leave sin now, how shall you leave it then ? It
will still be as sweet to your flesh as now: or if one
grow stale by the decay of nature, another that is
worse will spring up in its stead, and though the acts
abate, they will all live still at the root; for sin was
never mortified by age. So that if ever you wili
ti^n, you may best turn now.

208 FIFTY REASONS.

9. Yea, more than that, the longer you stay, the
harder it will be. If it be hard to-day, it is like to
be harder to-morrow. For as the Spirit of Christ
is like to forsake you for your wilful delays, so cus-
tom will strengthen sin : and custom in sinning will
harden your hearts, and make you " past feeling, to
work all uncleanness with greediness." Cannot you
crush this serpent when it is but weak; and can you
encounter it in its serpentine strength? Cannot you
pluck up a tender plant; and can you pluck up an
oak or cedar? O sinners! what do you mean, to
make your recovery so difficult by delay ? You are
never like to be fairer for heaven, and to find con
version an easier work, than now you may do. Will
you stay till the work be ten times harder, and yet
do you think it so hard already?

10. Consider also, that sin gets daily victories by
your delay. We lay out batteries against it, and
preach, and exhort, and pray against it, and it gets
a kind of victory over all, as long as we prevail not
with you to turn. It conquereth our persuasions
and advice; it conquereth all the stirrings of your
consciences; it conquereth all your heartless pur-
poses and deceitful promises. And these frequent
conquests strengthen. your sin, and weaken your re-
sistance, and leave the matter almost hopeless. Be-
fore a physician hath used remedies, he hath more
hope of a cure, than when he hath tried all means,
and finds that the best medicines do no good, but
the man is still as bad or worse. So when all means
have been tried with you, and yet you are uncon-
verted, the case draws towards desperation itself:
the very means are disabled more than before; that
is, your hearts are harder to be wrought upon by
them. When you have long been under sermons
and reading, and among good examples, and yet
you are unconverted; these ordinances lose much of
their force with you. Custom will make you slight
them, and be dead-hearted under them. And it is
these very same means and truths, that you have

FIFTY REASONS. 209

frustrated, that must do the work, or it will never
be done.

11. Moreover, age itself hath many inconveni-
ences, and youth hath many great advantages: and
therefore it is folly to delay. In age the under-
standing and memory grow dull, and people grow
incapable, and almost unchangeable. We see, by
our every day's experience, that men think they
should not change when they are old ; that opinion
or practice, in which they have been brought up,
they think they should not then forsake. To learh
when they are old, and to turn when they are old—
you see how much they are against it. Besides,
now unfit is age to be at that pains that youth can
undergo? How unfit to begin the holy warfare
against the flesh, the world, and the devil ? God's
way is to list his soldiers as soon as may be, when
in youth; but the devil will persuade them that it
is yet too soon; and when he can no longer persuade
them that it is yet too soon, he will then persuade
that it is too late. O what a happy thing it is to
come to God betimes, and with the first! What
advantage hath youth ! They have the vigour of
wit and of body; they are not rooted and hardened
in sin, nor filled with prejudice and obstinacy against
godliness, as others are.

12. You have such times of advantage and en-
couragement as few ages of the world have ever
seen, and few nations on earth enjoy at this day.
What plain and plentiful teaching have you ! What
abundance of good examples, and the society of
the godly! Private and public helps are common.
Seldom has the church seen such days on earth.
And yet is not the way to heaven fair enough for
you? Yet are you not ready to turn to God? Will
you delay till harvest time be over, and the winter
of persecution come again? Have you sun, and
wind, and tide, to serve you, and will you stay to
set out in storms and darkness ?

13. Moreover, Your delay doth cast your con-

18

210 FIFTY REASONS.

version and salvation into hazard, yea, inti many
and grievous hazards. And is your everlasting
happiness a matter to be wilfully hazarded, by cause-
less and unreasonable delays ? If you delay to-day,
you are utterly uncertain of living till to-morrow.
If you put by this one motion, you know not wheth-
er ever you may have another. You know not
whether ever the Spirit of God will put another
thought of turning into your hearts; or at least,
whether he will incline your hearts to turn.

14. Moreover, The delay of conversion continu-
eth your sin, and so you will daily increase their
number, and increase your guilt, and make your
souls abundantly miserable. Are you not deep
enough in debt to God already, and have you not
sins enough to answer for upon your souls? Would
you fain have one year's sins more, or one day's sins
more, to be charged upon you? O, if you did but
know what sin is, it would amaze you to think what
a mountain lieth already upon your consciences!
One sin unpardoned will sink the sinner into hell;
and you have many a thousand upon your souls
already, and would you yet have more? Methinks
you should rather look about you, and bethink you
how you may get a pardon for all that is past.

15. And as sin increaseth daily by delay, so con-
sequently the wrath of God increaseth, and you will
run further into his displeasure, and possibly you
may cut down the bough that you stand upon, and
hasten destruction to yourselves. When you live
daily upon God, and are kept out of hell, by a mira-
cle of his mercy, methinks you should not desire yet
longer to provoke him, lest he withdraw his mercy,
and let you fall into misery.

16. And do but consider, What will become of
you if ye be found in these delays? You are then
lost, body and soul, for ever. Now if you had but
hearts to know what is good for you, the worst of
you might be converted and saved; for God doth
freely offer you his grace. But if you die in your

IJfTY SEASONS 211

delays, <n the- uvft&ing of an eye you will find your-
selves utterly ui^lone for ever.

17. Consider, That your very time, which you
lose by these delays, is an inconceivable loss. When
time is gone, what would you then give for one of
those years, or days, or hours, which you now fool-
ishly trifle away? O wretched sinners, are there so
many thousand souls in hell that would give a
world, if they had it, for one of your days; and yet
can you afford to throw them away in worldliness,
and sensuality, and loitering delays? 1 tell you,
time is better worth than all the wealth and honours
of the world. The day is coming when you will
value time: when it is gone you will know what a )
blessing you made light of.

18. Consider also, that God hath given you no
time to spare. He hath not lent you one day or
hour, more than is needful for the work that you
have to do; therefore you have no reason to lose
any by your delays. Do you imagine that God
would give a man an hour's time for nothing? much
less to abuse him and serve his enemy. No, let me
tell you, that if you make your best of every hour,
if you should never lose a moment of your lives,
you would find all little enough for the work you
have to do. I know not how others think of time,
but for my part I am forced daily to say, How swift,
how short is time ! And how great is our work !
And when we have done our best, how slowly it
goeth on! O precious time! What hearts have
they, what lives do those men lead, that think time
long ! That have time to spare, and to pass in idle-
ness !

19. To convince you more, Consider, 1 beseech
you, the exceeding greatness of the work you have
to do; and tell me then, whether it be time for you
to delay. Especially you, that are yet unconverted,
and strangers to the heavenly nature of the saints, —
you have far more to do than other men. You have
a multitude of head-strong passions to subdue, and

212 FIFTY REASONS.

abundance of deadly sins to kill, and rooted vices to
root up: you have a false opinion of God, and his
ways, to be plucked up; and the customs of many
years' standing to be broken: you have blind minds
that must be enlightened with heavenly knowledge,
and abundance of spiritual truths that are above the
reach of flesh and blood, that you must needs learn
and understand: you have much to know, that is
hard to be known: you have a dead soul to be made
alive, and a hard heart to be melted; and a seared
conscience to be softened, and made tender; and
the guilt of many thousand sins to be pardoned:
you have a new heart to get, and a new end to aim
at, and seek after, and a new life to live; abundance
of enemies you have to fight with, and overcome;
abundance of temptations to resist and conquer;
many graces to get, and preserve and exercise, and
increase; and abundance of holy work to do for the
service of God, and the good of yourselves and
others. O what a deal of work doth every one of
these words contain! And yet what abundance
more might I name! And have you all this to do,
and yet will you delay? And they are not indiffer-
ent matters that are beiore you: it is no less than
the saving of your souls, and obtaining the blessed
glory of the saints. Necessity is upon you. These
are things that must be done, or else wo to you that
ever you were born ! And yet have you another
day to lose? Why, sirs, if you had a hundred miles
to go in a day or two, upon pain of death, would
you delay? 0 think of the work that you have to
do, and then judge whether it be not time to stir?

20. And methinks it should exceedingly terrify
you to consider, What multitudes perish by such
delays; and how few that wilfully delay, are ever
converted and saved! Many a soul, that once had
purposes hereafter to repent, is now in the misery
where there is no repentance that will do them any
good. For my part, though I have known some
very few converted when they were old; yet I must

FIFTY REASONS. 213

needs say, both that they were very few indeed, and
I had reason to believe, that they were such as had
sinned before in ignorance, and did not wilfully put
off repentance, when they were convinced that they
must turn. Though I doubt not but God may con-
vert even these if he please, yet I cannot say that 1
have ever known many, if any such, to be converted.
Sure I am that God's usual time is in childhood, or
youth, before they have long abused grace, and wil-
fully delayed to turn when they were convinced.
Some considerable time, I confess, may have elapsed,
before their first convictions and purposes be brought
to any great ripeness of performance: but O how
dangerous it is to delay !

21. Consider also, Either conversion is good or
bad for you; either it is needful or unnecessary.
If it be bad, and a needless thing, then let it alone
altogether. But if you are convinced that it is good
and necessary, is it not better now than to stay any
longer? Is it not the sooner the better? Are you
afraid of being safe or happy too soon? If you are
sick, you care not how soon you are well; if you
have a bone out, you care not how soon it is set; if
you fall into the water, you care not how soon you
get out; if your house be on fire, you care not how
soon it be quenched; if you are put in fear by any
doubts or ill tidings, you care not how soon your
fears be over. And yet are you afraid of being too
soon out of the power of the devil, and the danger
of hell; and of being too soon the sons of God, and
the holy, justified heirs of heaven ?

22. Consider also, Either you can turn now, or
not. If you can and yet will not, you are utterly
without excuse. If you cannot to-day, how much
less will you be able hereafter, when strength is less,
and difficulties greater, and burdens more? Is it not
time, therefore, to apply to Christ for strength; and
should not the very sense of your inability dissuade
you from delay?

23. Consider, How long you have stayed already,

214 FIFTY REASONS.

and put God's patience to it by your folly. Have
not the devil, the world, and the flesh, had many
years' time of your life already? Have you not
long enough been swallowing the poison of sin;
and long enough been abusing the Lord that made
you; and the blood of the Son of God that was shed
for you; and the Spirit of grace, that hath moved
and persuaded you? Are you not yet gone far
enough from God? And have you not yet done
enough to the destroying of yourselves, and casting
away everlasting life? O wretched sinners! it is ra-
ther time for you to fall down on your faces before
the Lord, and with tears and groans to lament it day
and night, that ever you have gone so far in sin, and
delayed so long to turn to him as you have done.
Sure, if after so many years' rebellion, you are yet
so far from lamenting it, that you had rather have
more of it, and had rather hold on a little longer,
no wonder if God forsake you, and let you alone.

24. Have you any hopes of God's acceptance and
your salvation, or not? If you have such hopes, —
that, when you turn, God will pardon all your sins,
and give you everlasting life, — is it, think you, an
ingenuous thing to desire to offend him yet a little
longer, from whom you expect such exceeding mer-
cy and glory ? Have you the faces to s|)eak out what
is in your hearts and practice; and to go to God
with such words as these ? * Lord, I know I can-
not have the pardon of one sin without the blood of
Christ, and the riches of thy mercy. Nor can I he
saved from hell without it: but yet I hope for all this
from thy grace. I beseech thee let me live a little
longer in my sins; a little longer let me trample on
the blood of Christ, and despise thy commandments,
and abuse thy mercies; and then pardon me all that
ever I did, and take me into Glory.' — Could you for
shame put such a request to God as this? If you
could, you are past shame: if not, then do not prac-
tise and desire that which you cannot, for shame,
speak out and request.

FIFTY REASONS. 215

25. Moreover, It is an exceeding advantage to
you to come to God betimes; and an exceeding
loss, tli at you will suffer by delay, if you were sure
to be converted at the last. If you speedily come
in, you may have time to learn, and get more under-
standing in the matters of God, than otherwise can
be expected. For knowledge will not be had but
by time and study. You may also have time to get
strength of grace, when beginners can expect no
more tban infant strength. You may grow to be
men of parts and abilities, to be useful in the church,
and profitable to those about you, when others can-
not go or stand, unless they lean on the stronger for
support. If you come in betimes, you may do God
service; which, in the evening of the day, you will
neither have strength nor time to do. You may
have time to get assurance of salvation, and to be
ready with comfort, when death shall call; when
a weakling is like to be perplexed with doubts and
fears, and death is like to be terrible, because of
their unreadiness.

26. And did you ever consider, who and how
many stay for you while you delay? Do you
know who it is that you make to wait your leisure?
God himself stands over you with the offers of his
mercy, as if he thought it long till you return, say-
ing, "O that there were such a heart in them!"
and " when will it once be !" " How long, ye simple
ones, will ye love simplicity, and scorners delight in
scorning, and fools hate knowledge? Turn ye at
my reproof." And do you think it wise, or safe, for
you to make the God of heaven wait on you, while
you are serving his enemy? Can you oner God a
baser indignity, than to expect he should support
your lives, and feed you, and preserve you, and
patiently forbear while you abuse him to his face,
and drudge for the flesh, the world, and the devil?
Should a worm thus use the Lord that made him?
Marvel not, if he withdraw his supporting mercy,
and let sucli wretches drop into hell !

?

y !

(And it is not God onlv, but "his Servants, and

^q [creatures, and ordinances, that are alrwaiting on
%you. The angels stay for the joy that is due to
them upon your conversion. Ministers are study-
ing", and preaching, and praying for you; godly
neighbours are praying, and longing for your change.
The springs and rivers are flowing for you; the
winds blow for you; the sun shines for you: the
clouds rain for you; the earth bears fruit for you;
the beasts must labour, and suffer, and die for you :
all things are doing, and would you stand still, or
else do worse? What haste makes the sun about
the world, to return in its time to give you light!
What haste make other creatures in your service !
And yet must you delay? Must God stay, and
Christ and the Spirit stay? Must angels stay, must
ministers stay, must the godly stay, and the ordi-
nances stay, and all the creatures stay your leisure,
while you are abusing God, and your souls, and
others, and while you delay, as if it were too soon
to turn?

27. Consider, That when you were lost, the Son
of God did not delay the work of redemption. He
presently undertook it, and turned by the stroke of
condemning justice. In the fulness of time he came
and performed what he undertook; he failed not one
day of his appointed time. And will you now delay
to accept the benefit and to turn to him? Must he
make such haste to save you at so dear a rate, and
now will you delay to be saved?

28. Moreover, God doth not delay to do you
good. You have the day and night in their proper
seasons; the sun doth not fail to rise upon you at
the appointed time; you have the*spring and harvest
in their proper seasons; the former and the latter
rain in season. When you are in want, you have
seasonable supplies; and when_you are in danger,
you have seasonable deliverances. And i<; it meet
or equal that you should refuse to bring forth sea-

FIFTY REASONS. 217

sonable fruit, but still be putting off God with your

29. Moreover, When you are in trouble and ne-
cessity, you are then in haste for deliverance and re-
lief. Then you think every day a week, till your
danger or suffering be past. If you be under the
pain of a disease, or in danger of death, or under
poverty, or oppression, or disgrace, you would have
God relieve you without delay; and yet you will
not turn to him without delay. Then you are ready
to cry out, ' How long, Lord, how long till deliver-
ance come?' But you will not hear God, when he
crieth to you, in your sins — How long will it be ere
you turn from your transgressions? When shall it
once be? When you are to receive any outward
deliverance, you care not how soon; but when you
are to turn to God, and receive his grace and title to
glory, then you care not how late, as if you had
no mind of it. Can you, for shame, beg of God to
hasten your deliverance, when you remember your
delays, and still continue to trifle with him and draw
back ?

30. Your present prosperity, and worldly delights,
are passing away without delay; and should you de-
lay to make sure of better in their stead ? Time '
going; and health is going; youth is going; yea, life
is going; your riches are taking wing; your fleshly
pleasures do perish in the very using. Shortly you
must part with house and lands, with goods and
friends; and all your mirth and earthly business will
be done. All this you know, and yet. will you delay
to lay up a durable treasure, which you may trust
upon, and to provide you a better tenement before
you be turned out of this? What will you do for
a habitation, for pleasures and contents, when all
that you have now is spent and gone, and earth will
afford you nothing _but a grave? If you could but
keep that you have, I should not much wonder,
fehat knowing so little of God and another world, you
look not much after it; but when vou perceive death

19

?)

IS I

218 FIFTY REASONS.

knocking at your doors, and seeing all your worldly
comforts are packing up and hasting away, me-
thinks you should presently turn, and make sure of
heaven, without any more delay.

31. Consider also, Whether it be equal that you
should delay your conversion, when you can season
ably despatch your worldly business; and when your
flesh would be provided for, you can hearken to it
without delay. You have wit enough to sow your
seed in season, and will not delay it till the time of
harvest. You will reap your corn when it is ripe,
and gather your fruit when it is ripe, without de-
lay. You observe the seasons in the course of your
labours, day by day, and year by year. You will not
lie in bed, when you should be at your work, nor
delay all night to go to your rest; nor sutler youi
servants to delay your business. If you be sick,
you will seek help without delay, lest your disease
should grow to be incurable. And yet will you
delay your conversion, and the making sure of
heaven? Why, sirs, shall these trifles be done
without delay, and shall your salvation be put off ?
Can you have time for every thing, except that one
thing which all the rest are merely to promote, and
in comparison of which they are all but dreams?
Can you have time to work, to plough, and sow,
and reap, and cannot you have time to prepare for
eternal life? Why, sirs, if you cannot find time yet
to search your hearts, to turn to God, and prepare
for death, give over eating and drinking, and sleeping,
and say, you cannot have time for these. You may
as wisely say so for these smaller matters, as lor
the greater.

82. Moreover, if men offer you conveniences and
commodities for your bodies, you will not stand de-
laying, and need so many persuasions to accept
them. If your landlord would lor nothing renew
your lease; if any man would give you houses or
lands, would you delay so long before you would
accept them? A beggar at your door will not only

FIFTtf REASONS. 219

thankfully take your alms, without your entreaty
and importunity, but will beg for it, and be impor-
tunate with you to give it. And yet will you delay
to accept the blessed offers of grace, which are so
much greater?

33. Yet consider, that it is God that is the giver,
and you that are the miserable beggars and receiv-
ers. And therefore it is fitter you should wait on
God, and call on him for his grace, when he seem-
eth to delay, and not that he should wait on you.
He can live without your receiving, but you cannot
live without his giving. The beggar must be glad
of an alms at any time; and the condemned person
of a pardon at any time; but the giver may well
expect that his gifts be received without delay, or
else he may let them go without.

34. And methinks you should not deal worse
with God, when he comes to you as a physician to
save your own souls, than you would do with a
neighbour, or a friend, when it is not for your own
good, but for theirs. If your neighbour lay a dy-
ing, you would go and visit him without delay. If
he fell down in a swoon, you would catch him up
without delay. If he fell into the fire or water,
you would pluck him out without delay. Yea, you
would do thus much to a very beast. And yet will
you delay, when it is not another, but yourselves
that are sinking and drowning, and within a step of
death and desperation?

35. If yet you perceive not how unreasonably
you deal with God and your souls, I beseech you,
consider, whether you do not deal worse with him
than you do with the devil himself. If Satan or his
servants persuade you to sin, you delay not so long
but you are presently at it. You are ready to fol-
low every tippling companion or gamester that puts
up the finger. You are as willing to go, as they
are to invite you. The very sight of the cup does
presently prevail with the drunkard ; and the sight
of a harlot prevaileth with the fornicator; and sin

220 FIFTY REASONS.

can be presently entertained without delay. But
when God comes, when Christ calleth, when the
Spirit moveth, when the minister persuadeth, when
conscience is convinced, we can have nothing but
wishes, and purposes, and promises, with delays.

Nay, more than this: so eager are they on their
sin, that we are not able to entreat them to delay it.
When the passionate man is but provoked, we can-
not persuade him to delay his railing language, so
long as to consider first of the issue. We cannot
entreat the drunkard to put off his drunkenness but
for one twelvemonth, while he trieth another course.
All the ministers in the country cannot persuade
the worldling to forbear his worldliness, and the
proud persons their pride, and the ungodly person
his ungodliness, for the space of one month, or week,
or day. And yet when God hath a command and
a request to them, to turn to him and be saved,
here they can delay, without our entreaty.

36. Consider also, that it is not possible for you
to turn too soon: nor will yopsver have, «ause-4o
repen^^ef^our speediness. j|5elay. mav'^undo you;
but sr^dV/furning can^go^yo^^o]^Srn.'*^^uld
there belmy delay, whereTF^not possible to be too

^Jngtyf TTo ^ou thiriltthat tlrereis-crertr saint in
heaven, yea or on earth, that is sorry he continued
not longer unconverted? No: you shall never hear
of such a repentance from the mouth of any that is
indeed converted.

37. But I must tell you on the contrary, that if
ever you be so happy as to be converted, you will
repent it, and a hundred times repent it, that you
delayed so long before you yielded. O, how it will
grieve you, when your hearts are melted with the
love of God, and are overcome with the infinite
kindness of his pardoning, saving grace, that ever
you had the hearts to abuse such a God, and deal
so unkindly with him, and stand out so long against
that compassion that was seeking your salvation!
Or how it will grieve your hearts, to consider that

FIFTY REASONS. 221

you have spent so much of your lives in sin, for the -
devil, and the flesh, and the deceitful world ! O,
you will think with yourselves, 'Was not God more
worthy of my youthful days? Had I not better
have spent them in his service, and in the work of
my salvation? Alas, that I should waste such pre-
cious days, and now be so far behind-hand as I am !
Now I want that faith, that hope, that love, that
peace, that assurance, that joy in the Holy Ghost,
which I might have had, if I had spent those years
for God, which I spent in the service of the world
and the flesh.'

38. And I pray you, consider whether it helongs
of right to God or you, to determine of the day and
hour of your coming in. It is he that must give
you the pardon of your sins; and doth it not belong
to him to appoint the time of your receiving it?
You cannot have Christ and life without him : it is
he that must give you the kingdom of heaven: and
is he not worthy, then, to appoint the time of your
conversion, that you may be made partakers of it?
But if he say, To-day, dare you say, I will stay
till to-morrow? "

39. Nay, consider, whether God or you be like-
lier to know the meetest time. Dare you say that
you know better when to turn than God doth? I
suppose you dare not; and if you dare not say so,
for shame, let not your practice say so. God saith,
"To-day, while it is called to-day, hear my voice,
and harden not your hearts." And dare you say,
It is better to stay one month longer, or one day
longer? God saith, " Behold, this is the accepted
time! Behold, this is the day of salvation!"
And will you say, It is time enough to-morrow?
Do you know better than God? If your physi-
cian do but tell you in a pleurisy or a fever, You
must let blood this day before to-morrow; you
have so much reason as to submit to his under
standing, and think that he knows better than you

222 FIFTY REASONS.

and cannot you allow as much to the God of wis
dom ?

40. Consider also, that the speediness of your
conversion, when God first calls you, doth make
you the more welcome, and is a thing exceedingly
pleasing to God. Our proverb is, a speedy gift is
a double gift. If you ask any thing of a friend,
and he give it you presently and cheerfully at the
first asking, you will think you have it with a good-
will; but if he stand long delaying first, and de-
murring upon it, you will think that you have it
with an ill-will, and that you owe him the smaller
thanks. If a very beggar at your door must stay
long for an alms, he will think he is the less be-
holden to you. How much mor,e may God be dis-
pleased, when he must stay so long for his own, and
that for your benefit ! God ioveth a cheerful giver,
and consequently, a cheerful obeyer of his call; and
if it be hearty and cheerful, it is the likelier to be
speedy, without such delays.

41. And I would desire you but to do with God
as you would be done jw: Wo"uT6f you take it well
of you v children, if theyshould tear all their clothes,
and cast their meat to the dogs, and tread it in the
dirt, and when you entreat them, they will not re-
gard you? Would you stand month after month
entreating and waiting on them, as God doth on you?
If your servant will spend the whole day and year
in drinking and playing, when he should do your
work, will you wait on him all the year with en-
treaties, and pay him at last, as if he had served
you? And can you expect that God should deal
so with you ?

42. Andconsider, I entreat you, that your delay
is a derjjaj, and So may God interpret it, lor the
trnTe^Tyour turning ispart of the command. He
tfiat saith, Turn, saith, Nowyeven to-day, without
delay. He giveth you no longer day. if time be
lengthened, and the offer made again and again,

/%*■

?*7^

FIFTT REASONS. 223

that is more than he promised you, or you could
have promised yourselves. His command is, Now
return and live. And if you refuse the time, the
present time, you refuse the offer, and forfeit the
benefit. And if you knew but what it is to give
God a denial in such a case as this, and what a
case you were in, if he should turn away in wrath
and never come near you more; you would then be
afraid of jesting with his hot displeasure, or trifling
with the Lord.

43. And, methinks, you should remember, that
God does not stay thus on all, as he doth on you.
Thousands are under despair, and past all remedy,
while patience is waiting yet upon you. Can you
forget that others are in hell at this very hour, for
as small sins as those that you are yet entangled
and linger in? Good Lord, what a thing is a sense-
less heart ! That at the same time when millions
are in misery, for delaying or refusing to be convert-
ed, their successors should fearlessly venture in their
steps !

44. And I must tell you, that God will not al-
ways thus wait on you, and attend you by his pa-
tience, as hitherto he hath done. Patience hath
his appointed time. And if you out-stay that time,
you are miserable. I can assure you, sirs, the glass
is turned upon you, and when it is run out, you
shall never have an hour of patience more. Then
God will no more entreat you to be converted. He
will not always stand over you with salvation, and
say, O that this sinner would repent and live ! O
that he would take the mercies that I have provided
for him ! Do not expect that God should do this
always with you; for it will not be.

45. Your delays weary the servants of Christ
that are employed for your recovery. Ministers
will grow weary of preaching to you, and persuad-
ing you. When we come to men that were nev-
er warnednbefore, we come in hopes that they
will hear ancT obey; and this hope puts life ancl

224 FIFTY REASONS.

earnestness into our persuasions: but when we
have persuaded men but a few times in vain, and
leave them as we found them, our spirits begin
to droop and flag; much more, when we have
preached and persuaded you many years, and still
you are the same, and are but where you were, —
this dulls a minister's spirit, and makes him preach
heavily and coldly, when he is almost out of heart
and hope.
' Truly, sirs, I must tell you, for my own part,

pfchat if it had not been for those that gave me better
encouragement by their obedience, I should never

' have held out with you a quarter of this time. If
all had profited as little as some, and all remain-
ed in an unconverted state as some; if the hum-
ble, penitent, obedient ones among you, had not
been my comfort and encouragement under Christ,
I had been gone from you many years ago; I could
never have held out till now: either my corruption
would have made me run away with Jonah, or my
judgment would have commanded me to shake off
the dust off my feet as a witness against you, and

! depart.

But to what end do I speak all this to_you?
To what end? Why, to let you see how you
abuse both God and man, by your delays and disobe-
dience. You cannot possibly do us, that are you r
teachers, a greater injury or mischief in the world.
It is not in your power to wrong us more. Are
our studies and our labours worth nothing? Are
our watchings and waitings worth nothing? Are
our prayers, and tears, and groans to be despised?
God will not despise them, if ydu7io"; believe it, he
will set them all on your account, and v< >u will one day
Have a heavy reckoning of them, and pay full dear
(or them. Is it equal dealing with us, that when
we are watching for your souls, as men that know
we must give an account, you should rob us of our
comfort, and make us do it with sighs and sorrow •
Yea, that you should undo all that Ave are doing,

FIFTY REASONS. 225

and make us lose our labour and our hopes? And
yet do you not think to pay for this? Many years
we have been persuading you but to turn and live,
and yet you are unturned; you have been convinced
long, and thinking on it; and wishing long, and talk-
ing of it; and promising long, and yet it is undone,
and here is nothing but delays. We see, while you
delay, death takes away one this week, and another
the next week, and you are passing into the other
world apace; and yet those that are left behind will
take no warning, but still delay : we see that Satan
delays not while you delay : he is day and night at
work against you: if he seem to make a truce with
you, it is that he may be doing secretly, while you
suspect him not : we see that sin delayeth not while
you delay; it is working like poison or infection in
your bodies, and seizing upon your vital powers; it
is every day blinding you more and more, it is hard-
ening your hearts more and more, and searing your
consciences, to bring you past all feeling and hope.
And must we stand by and see this miserable work
with our people's souls, and all be frustrated and re-
jected by themselves that we do for their deliver-
ance? I pray you deal but fairly with us, and tell
us whether ever you will turn or not. If you will
not, but are resolved for sin and hell, say so, that
we may know the worst; speak out your minds,
that we may know what to trust to. But if
still you say, you will turn — when will you do it?
You will do it, and you hope you shall: but when?
How long would you have us wait yet? Nay, I
must tell you, that you even weary God himself.
It is his own expression, (Mai. ii. 17. Isa. xliii. 24.)
" Thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities. "
(Isa. i. 14.) And I must say to you as the Prophet
(Isa. vii. 13.) " Is it a small thing for you to weary
men, but you will weary my God also? " Consider
what it is that you do.

46. Consider also, that you are at a constant and
unspeakable loss every day and hour that you delay

L2Zb FIFTY REASONS.

your conversion. O ! little do you know what you
deprive yourselves of every day. If a slave in the
galleys or prison might live at court, as a favourite
of the prince, in honour, and delight, and ease,
would he delay either years or hours? Or would
he not rather think within himself, Is it not better to
be at ease and in honour, than to be here? As the
prodigal said, "How many lured servants of my
father have bread enough and to spare, and I perish
with hunger! " All this while I might be in plenty
and delight. — All the while that you live in sin, you
might be in favour of God, in the high and heaven-
ly employments of the saints; you might have the
comforts of daily communion with Christ and with
the saints; you might be laying up for another
world, and might look death in the face with faith
and confidence, as one that cannot be conquered by
it; you might live as the heirs of heaven on earth.
All this, and more than this, you lose by your
delays; ail the mercies of God are lost upon you;
your food and raiment, your health and wealth,
which you set so much by, all is lost and worse than
lost, for they turn to your greater hurt; all our pains
with you, and all the ordinances of God which you
possess, and all your time is lost and worse. And
do you think it, indeed, a wise man's part to live any
longer at such a loss as this, and that wilfully and
for nothing? If you knew your loss, you would
not think so.

47. Nay more, you are all this while doing that
which must be undone again, or you will be undone
for ever. You are running from God, but you must
cume back again, or perish when all is done. You
are learning a hundred carnal lessons and false con-
ceits, that must be all unlearned again; you are
shutting up your eyes in wilful ignorance, which
must be opened again : you must learn the doctrine
of Christ, the great Teacher of the Church, if you
stay never so long, or else you would be cut off' from
his people. Acts iiL 22. and vii. 87.

FIFTY REASONS. 227

■ When you have been long accustoming yourselves
to sin, you must unlearn and break all these cus-
toms again. You are hardening your hearts daily,
and they must again be softened. And I must tell
you, that though a little time and labour may serve
to do mischief, yet it is not quickly undone again.
You may sooner set your house on fire than quench
it. You may sooner cut and wound your bodies,
than heal them again; and sooner catch a cold or a
disease than cure it; you may quickly do that which
must be longer undoing. Besides, the cure is ac-
companied with pain; you must take many a bitter
draught, in groans or tears of godly sorrow, for
these delays; the wounds, that you are now giving
your souls, must smart, and smart again, before they
are searched and healed to the bottom. And what
man of wisdom would make himself such work and
sorrow? Who would travel on an hour longer,
that knows he is out of his way, and must come
back again ? Would you not think him a madman
that would say, I will go on a little further, and
then I will turn back.

48. And methinks if it were but this, it would
terrify you from your delays, that it is likely to
make your conversion more grievous, if you should
have so great mercy from God, after all, to be con-
verted. God must send either some grievous afflic-
tion to fire and frighten you out of your sins, or else
some terrible horrors of conscience, that should
make you groan, and groan again, in the feeling of
your folly. The pangs and throes of conscience, in
the work of conversion, are far more grievous in some
than in others. Some are even on the rack, and
almost brought beside their wits, and the next step
to desperation, with horror of soul and the sense of
the wrath of God; so that they lie in doubts and
complaints many a year together, and think that
they are even forsaken of God. And to delay your
conversion is the way to draw on either this or
worse.

5«KJ FIFTY REASOjnS.

49. Consider also, that delays are contrary to the
very nature of the work, and the nature of your
souls themselves. If indeed you ever mean to turn,
it is a work of haste, and violence, and diligence, that
you must needs set upon. You must " strive to
enter in, for the gate is strait, the way is narrow
that leads to life, and few there be that find it."
" Many shall seek to enter, and shall not be able."
" When once the master of the house is risen up,
and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand
without, and knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord,
open to us, he shall answer, I know you not whence
you are, depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity."
It is a race that you are to run, and heaven is the
prize. "And you know that they which run in a race
run all, but one receiveth the prize; and therefore
you must so run, as that you may win and obtain."

And what is more contrary to this than delay?
You are soldiers in fight, and your salvation lieth in
the victory; and will you trifle in such a case, when
death or life is even at hand? You are travellers
to another world, and will you stay till the day is al-
most past, before you will begin your journey?
Christianity is a work of that infinite consequence,
and requireth such speedy and vigorous despatch,
that delay is more unreasonable in this than in any
thing in all the world.

50. If all this will not serve to make you turn,
let me tell you, that while you are delaying, your
judgment doth not delay; and that when it comes,
these delays will multiply your misery, and the re-
membrance of them wuT be your everlasting torment.
Whatever you are thinking of, or whatever you are
doing, your dreadful doom is drawing on apace, and
misery will overtake you, before you are aware.
When you are in the alehouse, little thinking of
ruin, even then is your damnation coming in haste;
when you are drowned in the pleasures or cares, of
the world, your judgment is still hastening. You
may delay, but it will not delay. It is the saying of

FIFTY REASONS. 229

the Holy Ghost, " Whose judgment now of a long
time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth
not." You may slumber, and that so carelessly,
that we cannot awake you, but your damnation
slumbereth not, nor hath done of a long time, while
you thought it slumbered; and when it comes, it
will awaken you. As a man that is in a coach on
the road, or in a boat on the water, whatever he is
speaking, or thinking, or doing, he is still going on,
and hastening to his journey's end, or going down
the stream; so whatever you think, or speak, or do,
whether you believe it, or mock at it, whether you
sleep or wake, whether you remember it or forget it,
you are hastening to destruction, and you are every
day a day nearer to it than before. " Behold the
Judge standeth before the door." The Holy Ghost
hath told you, " the Lord is at hand." " The day
is at hand; the time is at hand; the end of all things
is at hand." Rom. xiii. 12. Rev. xxii. 10. 1 Pet. iv.
7. " Behold, saith the Lord, I come quickly, and my
reward is with me, to give to every man according
as his work shall be." And do ^QJkJ^tjy^iey-see-
the Judge approaching, and yeFwill you delay?

"And withal consider, that when it comes, it will
be most sore to such as you; and then what thoughts
do you think you shall have of these delays? You
are unable to conceive how it will torment your con-
sciences, when you see that all your hopes are gone,
to think to what you have brought yourselves by
your trifling. To feel yourselves in remediless mis-
ery, and remember how long the remedy was offered
you, and you delayed to use it till it was too late.
To see that you are for ever shut out of heaven, and
remember that you might have had it as well as
others, but you lost it by delay. O then it will
come with horror into your mind, How often was I
persuaded, and told of this ? How often had I in-
ward motions to return? How often did I purpose
to be holy, and to give up my heart and life to God?
I was even ready to have yielded, but I still delayed,
and now it is too late.

230 FIFTY REASONS.

And now, having laid you down no less than fiity
moving considerations, if it he possible to save__y^u
from these delays, T concluli'e~with this request jto
you, whoever you be. that read, these lines, that you
would but consider of all these reasons, and then_en-
textaiajthgm as they deserve. There is not one of
them that you are able to gainsay, much less all of
them. If after the reading of all these, you can yet
believe that you have reasons to delay, your under-
standings are forsaken of God; but if you are forced
to confess that you should not delay, what will you
do then? Will you obey God and your own con-
sciences, or will you not? Will you turn this hour
without delay? Take heed of denying it, lest you
have never such a motion more. You know not
but God, who calls you to it, may be resolved that
it should^ bgjapw or never. I do beseecrryou, yea,
as his messenger, I charge you m his name, "that you
delay not an hour longer, hu.t pie^nily he rpanlvArlj
and make-an unchangeable covenant wkkGod; and,
as ever you would Eave favour in that day of your
distress, delay not now to accept his favour in the
day of your visitation.

O what a blessed family were that, who upon the
reading of this, would presently say, We have done
exceeding foolishly in delaying so great a matter so
long; let us agree together to give up ourselves to
God without any more delay. This shall be the
day; we will stay no longer. The flesh, and the
world, and the devil, have had too much already.
It is a wonder of patience that hath borne with us so
long; we will abuse the patience of God no longer,
but begin to be absolutely his this day. If this may
be the effect of these exhortations, you shall have
the everlasting blessing; but if still you delay, I hope
I am free from the guilt oi your~blood.

■I

EXTRACTS

FROM

BAXTER'S DYING THOUGHTS.

The reader has witnessed in the preceding pages the
fervent zeal and deep anxiety of the pious author in
urging on the impenitent the necessity of immediately
turning to God and repairing to the Saviour in order
to escape eternal death. In the following selections,
are exhibited some of the peaceful and happy reflec-
tions which the author indulged, in relation to his own
prospects in the near view of death.

The sanctifying operations of the Spirit of God
are the earnest of heaven, and the sure prognostic
of our immortal happiness. It is " a change of
grand importance " to man, to be renewed in his
mind, his will, and life. It repairs his depraved fac-
ulties. It causes man to live as man, who was de-
generated to a life too much like the brutes. Men
are " slaves to sin, till Christ makes them free."
" Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty."
If "the love of God shed abroad on our hearts," be
not our excellence, health, and beauty, what is ?
" That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that
which is born of the Spirit is spirit." Without
Christ, and his Spirit, we can do nothing. Our
dead notions and reason, though we see the truth,
have not power to overcome temptations, nor raise
up man's soul to its original, and end, nor possess us
with the love and joyful hopes of future blessedness.
It were better for us to have no souls, than have
our souls void of the Spirit of God Heaven is tlie

232 DYING THOUGHTS.

design and end of this important change. What is
our knowledge and faith, but to know and believe
that heaven consists in the glory and love of God
there manifested, and that it was purchased by-
Christ, and given by his covenant r What is our
hope, but " the hope of glory," which we through
the Spirit wait for ? What is our love, but a desire
of communion with the blessed God, begun here,
and perfected hereafter ? What Christ teaches and
commands, he works in us by his Spirit. He sends
not his Spirit to make men craftier than others for
this world, but " wiser to salvation," and more holy
and heavenly. " The children of this world are in
their generation wiser than the children of light."
Heavenly mindedness is the special work of the Spir-
it. In producing this change, the SpiHt overcomes
all opposition from the worlds the flesh, and the devil,
Christ first overcame the world, and teaches and
causes us to overcome it, even its flatteries and its
frowns. " Our faith is our victory." Christ prom-
ised his Spirit to all true believers, to be in them as
his advocate, agent, seal, and mark ; and indeed, the
Spirit here, and heaven hereafter, are the chief of
all his promises. That this Spirit is given to all
true believers, is evident by the effects of it. They
have ends, affections, and lives, different from the
rest of mankind. They live upon the hopes of a
better life, and their heavenly interest overrules all
the opposite interests of this world : in order to
which they live under the conduct of divine authori-
ty; and to obey and please God is the great business
of their lives. The men of the world discern tins
difference, and therefore hate and oppose them, be-
cause they find themselves condemned by their
heavenly temper and conversation. Believers are
conscious of this difference ; for they desire to be
better, and to trust and love God more, and to have
more of the heavenly life and comforts ; and when
their infirmities make them doubt of their own sin-
cerity, they would not change their governor, rule,

DYING THOUGHTS. 288

or hopes, for all the world ; and it is never so well
and pleasant with them, as when they can trust and
love God most ; and in their worst and weakest
condition they would fain be perfect. Indeed, what-
ever real goodness is found among men, it is given
by the same Spirit of Christ ; but it is notorious,
that in heavenly mindedness and virtue, no part of
the world is comparable to serious Christians. This
Spirit, Christ also expressly promised, as the means
and pledge, the first fruits and earnest of the heaven-
ly glory ; and, therefore, it is a certain proof that we
shall have such a glory. He that gives us a spiritual
change, which in its nature and tendency is heaven-
ly ; he that sets our hopes and hearts on heaven,
and turns the endeavours of our lives towards future
blessedness, and promised this preparatory grace as
the earnest of that felicity, may well be trusted to
perform his word in our complete eternal glory.

" And now, O my soul ! why shouldst thou draw
back, as if the matter was doubtful ? Is not thy
foundation firm ? Is not the way of life, through
the valley of death, made safe by him that conquered
death ? Art thou not yet delivered from the bond-
age of thy fears ? Hast thou not long ago found in
thee the motions and effectual operations of this
Spirit ? and is he not still residing and working in
thee, as the agent and witness of Christ ? If not,
whence are thy aspirations after God, thy desires to
be nearer to his glory, to know him and love him
more ? Whence came all the pleasure thou hast
had in his sacred truth, and ways, and service ?
Who subdued for thee thy folly, pride, and vain de-
sires ? Who made it thy choice to sit at the feet of
Jesus, and hear his word, as the better part, and
count the honors and preferments of the world but
dross ? Who breathed in thee all those requests
thou hast sent up to God ? Remember what thou
wast in the hour of temptation, how small a matter
has drawn thee to sin. Forget not the days of thy
youthful vanity. Overlook not the case of thy sin-
20

234 DYING THOUGHTS.

fill neighbours, who, in the midst of light, still live
in darkness, and hear not the loudest calls of God.
Is it no work of Christ's Spirit that has made thee
to differ ? Thou hast nothing to boast of, and much
to be humbled, and also to be thankful for. Thy
holy desires are, alas I too weak 5 but they are holy.
Thy love has been too cold ; but it is the most holy
God whom thou hast loved. Thy hopes have been
too low ; but thou hast hoped in God, and for his
heavenly glory. Thy prayers have been too dull
and interrupted ; but thou hast prayed for holiness
and heaven. Thy labours have been too slothful ;
but thou hast laboured for God and Christ, and the
good of mankind. Though thy motion was too
weak and slow, it has been god ward, and therefore
it is from God. O bless the Lord, not only for giv-
ing thee his word, and sealing it with uncontrolled
miracles, but also for frequently and remarkably ful-
filling his promises, in the answer of thy prayers,
and in great deliverance of thyself and of many oth-
ers ; and that he has by regeneration been prepar-
ing thee for the light of glory ! And wilt thou yet
doubt and fear, against all this evidence, experience,
and foretaste?"

Why should it seem a difficult question, How my
soul may willingly leave this world, and go to Christ
in peace ? The same grace which regenerated me,
must bring me to my desired end. " Believe and
trust thy Father, thy Saviour, and thy Comforter.
Hope for the joyful entertainments of the promised
blessedness. And long by love for nearer divine
union and communion. Thus, O my soul, mayst
thou depart in peace,"

How clearly does reason command me to trust
him, absolutely and implicitly to trust him, and to
distrust myself I He is essential, infinite perfection,
wisdom, power, and love. There is nothing to be
trusted in any creature, but God working in it, or
by it I am altogether his own, by right, by devo-
tion, and by consent. He is the giver of all good

DYING THOUGHTS. 235

to every creature, as freely as the sun gives its light,
and shall we not trust the sun to shine ? He is my
Father, and has taken me into his family, and shall
I not trust my heavenly Father ? He has given me
his Son, as the greatest pledge of his love, and " shall
he not with him also freely give me all things ?"
His Son purposely came to reveal his Father's un-
speakable love, and shall I not trust him who has
proclaimed his love by such a messenger from heav-
en ? He has given me the spirit of his Son, even
the spirit of adoption,' the witness, pledge, and ear-
nest of heaven, the seal of God upon me, "holiness
to the Lord," and shall I not believe his love, and
trust him ? He has made me a member of his Son,
and will he not take care of me, and is not Christ to
be trusted with his members ? I am his interest,
and the interest of his Son, freely beloved, and dear-
ly bought, and may I not trust him with his treasure?
He has made me the care of angels, who " rejoiced
at my repentance," and shall they lose their joy, or
ministration ? He is in covenant with me, and has
"given me many great and precious promises," and
can he be unfaithful ? My Saviour is the forerun-
ner, who has entered into the holiest, and is there
interceding for me, having first conquered death to
assure us of a future life, and ascended into heaven,
to show us whither we must ascend, and having
" said to his brethren, I ascend to my Father and
your Father, to my God and your God ;" and shall
I not follow him through death, and trust such a
guide and captain of my salvation ? He is there to
" prepare a place for me, and will receive me unto
himself," and may 1 not confidently expect it ? He
told a malefactor on the cross, " to day shalt thou be
with me in paradise," to show believing sinners what
they may expect. His apostles and other saints
have served him on earth with all these expectations.
" The spirits of just men made perfect," are now
possessing what I hope for, and I am a " follower of
them, who, through faith and patience, inherit the

236 DYING THOUGHTS.

promised " felicity ; and may I not trust him to save
me, who has already saved millions ?

What abundant experience have I had of God's
fidelity and love, and after all shall I not trust him ?
His undeserved mercy gave me being, chose my pa-
rents, gave them affectionate desires for my real
good, taught them to instinct me early in his word,
and educate me in his fear, made my habitation and
companions suitable, endowed me with a teachable
disposition, put excellent books into my hands, and
placed me under wise and faithful schoolmasters and
ministers. His mercy fixed me in the best of lands,
and in the best age that land had seen. His mercy
early destroyed in me all great expectations from the
world, taught me to bear the yoke from my youth,
caused me rather to groan under my infirmities, than
struggle with powerful lusts, and chastened me be-
times, but did not give me over unto death. Ever
since I was at the age of nineteen, great mercy has
trained me up in the school of affliction, to keep my
sluggish soul awake in the constant expectations of
my change, to kill my proud and worldly thoughts,
and to direct all my studies to things the most neces-
sary. How has a life of constant but gentle chas-
tisement urged me to " make my calling and election
sure," and to prepare my accounts, as one that must
quickly give them up to God ? The face of death,
and nearness of eternity, convinced me what books
to read, what studies to prosecute, what companions
to choose, drove me early into the vineyard of the
Lord, and taught me to preach as a dying man to
dying men. It was divine love and mercy which
made sacred truth so pleasant to me, that my life,
under all my infirmities, has been almost a constant
recreation. How far beyond my expectations has a
merciful God encouraged me in his sacred work,
choosing every place of my ministry and abode to
this day, without my own seeking, and never send-
ing me to labour in vain ! How many are gone to
heaven, and how many are in the way, through a

DYING THOUGHTS. 237

divine blessing on the word which in weakness I de-
livered ! Many good Christians are glad of now and
then an hour to meditate on God's word, and refresh
themselves in his holy worship, but God has allow-
ed and called me to make it the constant business of
my life. In my library, I have profitably and pleas-
antly dwelt among the shining lights, with which
the learned, wise, and holy men of all ages, have il-
luminated the world. How many comfortable hours
have I had in the society of living saints, and in the
love of faithful friends ! How many joyful days
in solemn worshipping assemblies, where the Spirit
of Christ has been manifestly present, both with
ministers and people !

" To thee, O Lord, as to a faithful Creator, I
commit my soul. I know that thou art ' the faith-
ful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with
them that love thee, and keep thy commandments.
Thou art faithful, who hast called me to the fellow-
ship of thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord.' Thy faith-
fulness has saved me from temptation, and kept me
from prevailing evil, and will 'preserve my whole
spirit, and soul, and body, unto the coming of
Christ.' It is ' in faithfulness thou hast afflicted
me ;' and shall I not trust thee to save me ? c It is
thy faithful saying, that thy elect shall obtain the
salvation which is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glo-
ry ; lor if we be dead with him, we shall also live
with him ; if we suffer, we shall also reign with him.'
To thee, O my Saviour, I commit my soul ; it is
thine by redemption, thine by covenant ; it is sealed
by thy Spirit, and thou hast promised not to lose it.
Thou wast i made like unto thy brethren, that thou
mightst be a merciful and faithful high priest in
things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for
our sins. By thy blood we have boldness to enter
into the holiest, by a new and living way consecrat-
ed for us.' Cause me to ' draw near with a true
heart, in full assurance of faith.' Thy name is
faithful and true. True and faithful are all thy

288 DYING THOUGHTS.

promises. Thou hast promised { rest to weary souls
that come to thee.' I am weary of suffering, sin,
and flesh ; weary of my darkness, dulness, and dis-
tance. Whither should I look for rest, but to my
heavenly Father? I am but a < bruised reed,1 but thou
* wilt not break ' me. I am but < smoking flax,' but
thou ' wilt not quench ' what thy grace hath kindled.
Thou, in whose name the nations trust, ' wilt bring
forth judgment unto victory. The Lord redeemeth
the souls of his servants, and none of them that
trust in him shall be desolate. I will wait on thy
name, for it is good ; I trust in the mercy of God
for ever and ever. The Lord is good, a strong hold
in the day of trouble, and he knoweth them that
trust in him. Sinful fear brings a snare, but whoso
putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe. Blessed
is the man that maketh the Lord his trust. Thou
art my hope, O Lord God, thou art my trust from
my youth. By thee have I been holden up from
the womb, my praise shall be continually of thee.
Mine eyes are unto thee, O God, the Lord ! in thee is
my trust, leave not my soul destitute. I had faint-
ed, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the
Lord in the land of the living,' even where they
that live shall die no more." The sun may cease to
shine on man, and the earth to bear us ; but God
will never cease to be faithful to his promises. Bles-
sed be the Lord, who has commanded me so sale
and quieting a duty, as to trust in him, and cast all
my cares upon him, who has promised to care ibr
me !

I viill hope for the salvation of God. Hope is the
ease, yea the life of our hearts, which would other-
wise break, and even die, within us. Despair is no
small part of hell. God cherishes hope, as he is the
lover of souls. Satan, our enemy, cherishes despair,
when his more usual way of presumption fails.
Hope anticipates salvation, as fear does evil. It is
the hypocrite's hope that perishes ; and all who hope
for durable happiness on earth, must be deceived.

DYING THOUGHTS. 239

But " happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for
his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God, which
made heaven and earth, which keepeth truth for ever.
Wo to me, if in this life only I had hope. But the
righteous hath hope in his death. And hope mak-
eth not ashamed. Blessed is the man that trusteth
in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. Lay hold,
then, O my soul, upon the hope set before thee ; it
is thy sure and steadfast anchor, without which thou
wilt be as a shipwrecked vessel. Thy foundation is
sure, even God himself. Our faith and hope are
both in God. Christ, who dwells in our hearts by
faith, is in us the hope of glory. By this hope, bet-
ter than the law of Moses could bring, we draw nigh
unto God. We hope for that we see not, and with
patience wait for it. We are saved by hope." It
is an encouraging grace, it excites our diligence, and
helps to full assurance unto the end. It is a desir-
ing grace, and is earnest to obtain the glory hoped
for. It is a comforting grace, for " the God of hope
fills us with all joy and peace in believing, that we
may abound in hope through the power of the Holy
Ghost."

God needs not flatter such worms as we are, nor
promise us what he never means to perform. He has
laid the rudiments of our hope in a nature capable of
desiring, seeking, and thinking of another life. He
has called me by grace to actual desires and endeav-
ours, and has vouchsafed some foretastes. I look
for no heaven, but the perfection of divine life, light,
and love in endless glory, with Christ and his saints ;
and this he has already begun in me. And shall 1
not boldly hope, when I have capacity, the promise,
and the earnest and foretaste ? Is it not God him-
self that caused me to hope ? Was not nature,
promise, and grace from him ? And can a soul mis-
carry and be deceived, that departs hence in a hope
of God's own producing and encouraging ? " Lord,
I have lived in hope, I have prayed, laboured, suf-
fered, and waited in hope, and by thy grace I will

240 DYING THOUGHTS.

die in hope; and is not this according to thy word
and will ? And wilt thou cast away a soul that
hopes in thee, by thine own command and opera-
tion ?" Had wealth, and honour, and continuance
on earth, or the favour of man, been my reward and
hope, my hope and I had died together. Were this
our best, how vain were man. But the Lord liv-
eth, and my Redeemer is glorified, and intercedes for
me ; and the same Spirit is in heaven, who is in my
heart, as the same sun is in the firmament and in
my habitation. The promise is sure to all Christ's
seed ; for millions are now in heaven, who once liv-
ed and died in hope ; they were sinners once, as I
now am ; they had no other Saviour, Sanctifier, or
promise, than I now have. " Confessing that they
were strangers and pilgrims on the earth, they de-
sired a better country, that is, a heavenly, where
they now are. And shall I not follow them in hope,
who have sped so well ? Then, O my soul, hope
unto the end. Hope in the Lord, from henceforth
and for ever. I will hope continually, and will yet
praise him more and more. My mouth shall show
forth his righteousness and salvation. The Lord is
at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore
my heart is glad, and my glory rejoice th, my flesh
also shall rest in hope. God hath showed me the
path of life ; in his presence is fulness of joy, at his
right hand there are pleasures for evermore."

Lord, let me come to thee in the confidence of thy
love. I long to be nearer, in the clearer sight, the
fuller sense, and more joyful exercise of love for
ever ' Father, into thy hand I commend my spirit !
Lord Jesus, receive my spirit ! Amen.

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